The Others
by Pepe Le Pew
Summary: Ichigo is trying to cope with dying. Rukia and Hitsugaya is trying to keep their relationship a secret. And a new force is out to destroy them. Can you fight the darkness that is haunting you? Hitsu/Ruki
1. Prologue

**This idea has been running around in my head for awhile now. I've found myself addicted to the HitsuRuki pairing too. So, without any further ado, I hope you guys enjoy this one. **

**I don't own Bleach, but I do wish I owned Hitsugaya and Ichigo...**

**By the way, this is rated for safety.**

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The young girl draped herself over the boy beside her.

She pressed into his back, her small, gentle hands running over his chest before clenching at the top of his hakama as if holding the pants up. Her lips brushed his ear as she spoke, her words a soft, seductive whisper, but he seemed unfazed by it. Her other hand slipped into the front of his shihakusho and she brushed her hand across his chest, scraping nails that weren't too long across naked flesh alluringly.

Before them laid Soul Society, a mass of twinkling lights in the cold winter's night.

"Né, taichou," she whispered, "are we going to kill them now?"

The boy was silent for a long time. Finally he caught her hand and pulled it from his shihakusho while he pulled the other one up to chest level. He held her hands there, pulling her tightly to his back and turned his head.

His mouth caught hers in a passionate, deep kiss. His tongue swept across her lips and dove into her mouth, exploring the warm cavern before he finally released her. He held both hands in his hand and raised the other hand to the back of her head and kept her in place.

"We kill them all."


	2. Chapter 1

**Thankies so much to everyone who had reviewed. I'm glad you guys decided to give this story a chance. I don't have a lot to say...hehe**

**Enjoy, and I don't own.**

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Rukia giggled breathlessly as the man before her pushed her against a wall in the darkened alley.

His one hand was pushed against the wall beside her head and the other rested on her hip, his thumb brushing in a comforting circular motion against her clothed hip. His mouth is warm and persistent against hers, coaxing hers into delightful play while he presses his whole body flush against hers. Her hands were wrapped around his neck, pushed deep into the silky white strands of his hair.

She laughed softly and breathlessly again as he pulled his mouth from hers and trailed kisses down into her neck, running his hand up against her stomach to part her shihakusho. "We have to go and meet with Ichigo," she said breathlessly, pulling his face up to hers and kissing him gently again.

She watched as his eyes darkened and he sighed annoyed. She grinned him and gently kissed him on the lips before waltzing past him, out of the alley. "Tease," he hissed and she laughed boisterously again.

She didn't mean to be one. Honestly, she was madly in love with him, but she was not ready to jeopardize either his or her position in the rankings of Soul Society. A relationship with a taichou was considered against regulation and both shinigami could loose their standing positions. A taichou should not and would not and could not enter into a relationship of any kind (besides that of a superior and subordinate or friends) with any of his or her subordinates. Whether they were in the same division or not, it was not to happen.

And besides, if she ended up sleeping with him, she didn't want it to happen in some darkened alley where some drunken Eleventh member could happen upon them anyway. They could call her old fashioned, but she was sort of hoping for it to be special, the rose petals on the bed type of special.

The law had been brought to station a couple of centuries before she was even born. She wasn't sure exactly what happened for Yamamoto sotaichou to place such a law, but she realized that the man was to be taken seriously and that neither them would get off lightly if it was discovered.

She was about three streets away when he finally fell into step beside her again. No one would question it if they walked together. After all, everyone knew that she had served under him during the time the Arrancar had been in Karakura. It was common knowledge that they had fought in the war together and people would only assume two comrades were enjoying each other's company.

"How long is Kurosaki staying this time?"

Rukia glanced at him; his tone was darker than was normal and slightly deeper. She hid her smile of amusement.

Ichigo's situation was one none of them was sure how to handle. No one had the heart to tell him the truth of what would happen to him in a couple of months. He had so many dreams that it was difficult telling him, even for her. And she had vowed to always tell him everything if it had anything to do with the shinigami world.

About two months after the war with Aizen they discovered that there was a reason Substitute shinigami were a rarity and why it was illegal for a shinigami to give their powers to a human. Essential it was Rukia's fault he was going to die. No Substitute ever lived longer than five years. The switching between soul and human eventually wears on the immune system of the human body and with every switch the human body shuts down. And the closer the Substitute comes to the five-year anniversary of gaining a shinigami's powers, the weaker the body becomes.

At first she had thought that because he had a shinigami father, it would be different with him, but his mother had been human and their had been circumstances around Isshin's place in the human world that also counted against him.

Ichigo was dying and there was nothing any doctor could do to help him. And he didn't know how to take his sudden weakness in his human body because his soul was strong and health. Which causes him to spend more time in soul form than in human form, which is only speeding the process up.

Rukia felt immense guilt over what was happening.

She sighed softly and stared up at the sky. "I don't know. He didn't say." It didn't matter either. They never got to see him when he did come to Soul Society. He was always in the library or the archives, searching for a cure to his illness. It was frustrating him to no end that not even Orihime's healing wasn't helping.

He scoffed, muttering something she couldn't hear as they entered the part of Soul Society that belonged to the Ninth Division. There was a rumor going around that Ichigo would become the taichou of the Ninth Division once he got some basic kido training at the Academy. Matsumoto was very excited about the thought, Rukia often refrained from saying she thought she might have a crush on the future taichou, only because whenever anyone does, they get a fist to the face from Hitsugaya. And the busty fukutaichou often denied such claims.

They headed to the area behind the training grounds and slipped into the wooded area until they found everyone sitting around in a large clearing enjoying each other's company with lots of food and various other things like sake. She was sure it was courtesy of Matsumoto. Ichigo was sitting furthest away from everyone, broodingly staring off into the distance. He had probably been dragged away from his archives.

"Oi! Ichigo, look better!" she shouted and hurried towards him. She forced her hands onto her hips and loomed over him, grinning. She watched as his whiskey orbs flicked towards Hitsugaya and then back to her. Her grin faltered slightly at the curious look he was giving her, but she held fast. She was sure he would discuss it with her and Hitsugaya first if he figured it out. "You'll miss out on the party."

He sighed softly and looked away from her. She sighed sadly and she crouched in front of him. "What happened?" she asked softly.

He had already been in Soul Society for three days, but with his constant disappearances to the archives or library she hadn't gotten much chance to talk to him and the bit she did, was brief glimpse before he would be dragged away by someone else who wanted to talk to him about something or by Hanatarou who thought he might've found something. Poor Hanatarou was too dense to pick up on the fact that he actually knew what was going to happen to Ichigo eventually. He has been faithfully helping the future taichou without much sleep.

"I needed a blood transfusion last week after cutting my hand while I was making a sandwich."

She cringed. "Why were you out of bed?" she asked.

He glared at her, his fury temper flaring up. She had gone to see him in the Human World a couple of weeks back. According to Yuzu he had looked worse now. Ichigo's hair was a pale peach orange and his face gaunt and his brown eyes looked empty. He was more skin and bone than anything else and while he was showing symptoms from various human illnesses, some doctors claim that it was impossible for him to get all of it at the same time.

"I'm not sick, Rukia!" he hissed. His frustration echoed in his voice. It echoed harshly in his voice, hiding the fear and panic he was feeling. "Something is killing me and I can't figure out what it is. No matter what I look at and no matter what I try, I am dying." Frustrated tears shot to the boy's eyes and her heart clenched as he leaned forward and rested his head on his knees. She watched him take deep; even breathes before he sat up again and looked at the sky.

She sat down, cross-legged, and felt guilt wash over her. She wanted to tell him, but everyone was under order to let him discover it on his own. Yamamoto sotaichou wanted him to work it out for himself believing that it would be a great show of character if he could handle something like this calmly. She figured it was in some way true, but it was killing him and his family. Even Kon had become less perverted and more subdued. "I'm sorry, Ichigo."

"Ichigo!" she smiled half amused as the angry look in his eyes softened and he raised his head to look at Matsumoto. She was carrying a small plate loaded with various foods. She grinned at Rukia and sat down beside her. She nudged Ichigo off his rock and set the plate down on it. "I thought I'd bring you guys something to eat. Taichou said I should tell you that you're being rude, sitting here all on your own." She said grinning.

Ichigo smirked and glanced over Matsumoto's head. "Oh he's just jealous." He said, as he looked straight at Rukia. Her eyes widened marginally, but she showed no more emotion that she knew what he was talking about. It was obvious that he knew. "And soon enough he's going to be even more jealous." He said firmly.

Matsumoto smirked. Her pale blue eyes were bright with mischief. Ichigo smirked and leaned towards her. "And why would that be future taichou-san?" she asked, her voice low and seductive. "I wouldn't happen to have something to do with that, would I?" Rukia didn't know whether or not to gag and run or to laugh and watch how this would play out. She wondered if Ichigo even realized that he would not be allowed to have a relationship with Matsumoto. If he took the job as taichou he would be of a higher rank than her. If he didn't take the job he would be a lower rank than her and then she wouldn't be allowed to have a relationship with him. If Rukia weren't already in the position as the Thirteenth Division's fukutaichou she would've suggested that rank.

"Exactly, I have two of the most beautiful women sitting right here with me, all to myself and what does he have?" Rukia laughed softly as she turned to look at the scowling Hitsugaya. "Two creepy men, bound to kill each other sooner or later." Hitsugaya was indeed surrounded by two men who were bound to kill each other if given the chance. Zaraki taichou and Kurotsuchi taichou looked seconds away from tearing away at each other. And the poor white haired taichou was right in the center of their growing argument.

Matsumoto threw her head back and laughed brightly. Hitsugaya turned his head towards them, still scowling when he caught her looking at him. Rukia's face flushed a faint red and he smirked as she turned away. She nudged Ichigo's leg with her foot and Matsumoto's ribs with her elbow. "Maybe he's right. It does sort of look like we're being rude by keeping the future Ninth Division taichou to ourselves."

Matsumoto pouted amused, but got up nonetheless, extending her hand towards Rukia and helping her up as Ichigo got up on his own. She half draped herself across Ichigo when he came to stand beside her. Ichigo had grown up in the last couple of years since Aizen's death. Rukia started forward, still looking at the two of them and watching as Ichigo waited for Matsumoto to say what she wanted to say.

Just as she was about to say something, explosions echoed from the Division area just over.

The ground shook beneath their feet and their heads snapped in the direction of the Tenth Division. Screams of fear filled their air and her blood ran cold as the distinct scream of 'Taichou!' echoed through the suddenly quiet streets of Soul Society. It was as if the color had drained completely from Hitsugaya's face and it was as if time it self had frozen them in their places.

And then Ichigo was moving and the moment his feet hit the whitewashed stones that made up every Division's streets, they were following, shunpo'ing towards the Tenth Division. The moment they stepped into the Tenth Division Rukia's heart sank. Bodies littered the grounds; in the short amount of time they had been spending between the Ninth and Tenth Divisions something had laid waste to the lower seats of the Tenth Divisions.

Some had been caught in the explosion and others had holes in their chests the size of a small person's fist. Their blood pooled beneath them, mixing together and creating a sickening crimson river as the blood slowly pooled into the drainage system, staining the whitewashed streets red. Pain flashed across Hitsugaya's face and she could see guilt simmering in them. She could almost hear his thoughts.

He had not protected his Division. He had let them die. He had let this happen.

Rukia's head snapped to the side when she heard a soft moaning sound. One of the men with a hole through his chest moved, as if trying to escape something. He was using his arms to pull himself away from whatever it was that he was afraid of. Rukia hurried towards him, ignoring the splash of blood against her white socks and sandals. Hitsugaya followed her while the others started to spread out, heading out to comb the Division area for the perpetrators. She knelt beside the man and set her hand on his shoulder.

Ichigo was standing behind her and Matsumoto close to Hitsugaya.

The moment the man raised his eyes to hers fear crept into them and he started to move faster. As if he was afraid of her. He kept whimpering, begging for his life and pleading not to be killed. He kept saying that he had never said anything against the Kuchiki house and that he never would do such a terrible thing because he had been part of the Sixth Division and Kuchiki taichou had been a wonderful man.

Rukia didn't understand his ramblings, but his fear escalated the moment Hitsugaya came into his line of sight. The man was crying at that point. His bloodied hand wrapped around Hitsugaya's ankle and begging to be forgiven for whatever dishonor he had done to the Division and that he would never do it again.

Nothing they said could calm him down long enough for him to explain what had happened. Matsumoto and Rukia were performing emergency medical kido just to heal the worst of his wounds. They knew he would have to be taken to the Fourth Division, but if they could just calm him down, they might get out of him about what had happened.

The more he blabbered and begged and pleaded and cried, the more blood slipped down the corners of his mouth. Eventually Ichigo leaned down and pressed a faintly fluttering point in his neck hard enough to knock him out. Hitsugaya glared at him for a second, but they all realized they weren't going to get anything else out of him. When she and Matsumoto had done what they could, she stood up, cringing at the feel of the blood trailing down her legs and stared out over the grounds.

This was not a massacre, this was genocide.

The whole front yard of the Tenth Division, straight down to the large set of doors that led into it, was covered in blood. Dead shinigami lay scattered all over the place. Some were missing limbs, nearly all had a hole through their chest and some were burnt. Zanpakuto lay discarded, the majority not even drawn yet. It was as if whatever had attacked had surprised the shinigami, as if they had not known what to do in the face of an adversary.

It was as if they had not been able to attack whatever had laid waste to them.

Her gut twisted sickeningly. How far did this go? How many shinigami of the Tenth Division survived and how many hadn't? Was it Arrancar? Was Aizen back? How many unanswered questions would come up with this mess?

She looked at Hitsugaya. She wanted to wrap her arms around him so badly, hold him against her and say that it was going to be alright. She wanted to tell him that he didn't have to worry, that they would find whatever had done this to his Division and they would make it suffer.

But she couldn't.

She was too scared to move. She was too scared to think beyond the fact that they had not sensed a thing. Something had laid waste to what seemed like more than half of a three hundred man Division and they had not even sensed it. There hadn't even been a tiny, insignificant trace of something out of order. Everything had been as it should've been right up until the explosion had taken place.

Everything had been going so well for the last five years.

"Hitsugaya taichou!" they looked up as Hisagi flickered into existence in front of them. The man looked like he was going to take the expected position of respect, when he thought better of kneeling in the blood. "We've found survivors, we suspect it is recruits. They were hiding in the office building basement."

There was a moment of relieved silence. Survivors were good. Survivors meant a chance closer to capturing the perpetrators. "Did they say who did this?" the white haired taichou asked as he started forward towards the office building.

Hisagi remained quiet for a moment, looking at Ichigo as if he actually needed confirmation to be allowed to say what they had said. Ichigo looked confused for a second, not sure how he was supposed to respond to the questioning look in his eyes.

"Hisagi fukutaichou," Hitsugaya growled.

The man swallowed.

"Yes Taichou," he whispered, "they said it was you."


	3. Chapter 2

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**Hmm, I thought I should say something, but there will be character deaths in this story. Also I'm starting to wonder if the 'M' rating is absolutely necessary. I've rated the story for safety, but the blood shedding isn't to descriptive, is it? Anyway, about the character deaths, no, it will not be Hitsugaya or Rukia. Anyway...**

**Enjoy!**

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Hitsugaya Toshiro was sitting behind his office desk, listening to the utter silence of his Division with trepidation.

The mess had been cleaned up, but the remaining hundred and twenty members of his Division wanted a transfer out, to any other Division but the Thirteenth Division. He had spent a week under intensive interrogation from members of the Onmitsukido corps just to be cleared of actually having had something to do with the genocide that had taken place in his Division.

Nothing prepared him for something like this. There was no handbook that could tell him how he was supposed to act now. He is the commander of forces too afraid to be in his presence, much less look him in the eye.

He sighed softly and sifted through the papers on his desk. Matsumoto's desk was empty, not because she was afraid, but because she was the only one his forces were willing to interact with. He dropped the papers back onto the desk without having done much. He didn't have the will to do anything. It was as if he was suddenly just so tired. There was nothing he could do. Whatever had attacked his men and women had convinced them it was him.

No matter how much he wracked his brain for a solution to this problem he came up with nothing. He was aware of ever little detail of the day it had happened, from the time he had spent with Rukia straight through to when it had happened. He could not claim to have gone into some trance because he hadn't gone into some trance. Everyone had seen him at the little party Matsumoto had arranged for Kurosaki and everyone had been able to vouch that he had been with them through out the whole attack.

The thing that confused him the most: was that while they were afraid of him, they were terrified of Rukia. It was something he couldn't quite put together. She rarely ever spent time around the Division grounds – under the firm belief that people would immediately realize she was having a secret relationship with him if she spent more than two seconds in his Division – or even near the Division. What concerned him even more about their unwarranted fear was the sincerity behind it.

He had not committed genocide in his own Division and neither had Rukia, but something had managed to make them believe that.

He looked up as a soft knock was heard from the door. He took a deep breath and prepared himself. "Enter." He called.

A young girl stepped into the office. She didn't come any further than the door. He wanted to curse and send her out of his office immediately. Apparently word traveled fast. "Hitsugaya taichou," she said softly, "Kuchiki taichou said that there will be a meeting with Yamamoto sotaichou in ten minutes and that you are required at it."

He studied her silently for a moment. He had expected it. He nodded his head. "Thank you." He said politely. He was going to be placed on suspension. He got up as she hurried out of the office and grabbed Hyourinmaru from the stand in which he hand been placed. He could practically hear the zanpakuto spirit growling in displeasure at the turn of events.

He shunpo'ed to the First Division and waited until Matsumoto appeared at his side. He ignored every other taichou and their fukutaichou simply because he wasn't in the mood for their pitying glances and sympathetic touches. What he wanted was Rukia, but chances of that happening at the moment were less than none. There were far too many people who would be watching them now.

Matsumoto landed beside him with a sway of her hair and a mildly annoyed look on her face. She grinned at him and ruffled his hair as if he was a child. He was pretty sure her breast would be falling out if she leaned forward even more than she already was leaning forward. "How've you been doing, Taichou?" she asked cheerily.

He slapped her hand away, his fingers a bare touch against her wrist. "Matsumoto, let's go." He muttered and headed in. They were the last to arrive. She took her place on the bright pink pillow and remained silent.

Bringing fukutaichou to the monthly – or on demand – meetings had been Kurosaki's idea. He had said that they leave too many communication gaps between their high ranked officers that when trouble strikes they run around like chickens with off heads. So while the taichou remained standing, the fukutaichou remained seated. It had been done before, but not on the permanent basis Kurosaki was suggesting.

"Hitsugaya taichou," Yamamoto sotaichou said calmly, "step forward."

He remained motionless for a few seconds. He had worked hard for his position as taichou of the Tenth Division. He had spent decades proving himself to both his Division and his colleagues and because of one incident, one unexplainable incident that was going to be taken away from him. Suspension wasn't permanent, but until they can solve whatever problem Soul Society was facing now, he would not be the taichou of the Tenth Division. And the irony of it all was that Tenth Division was in fact the Investigation's Division. Something goes wrong: the Tenth Division investigates the problem and finds out why.

He stepped forward, standing dead center of the room, between Hisagi and Matsumoto. He clenched his hands into fists at his side and kept his face as carefully blank as he could. "Hitsugaya Toshiro, as of this moment you are placed under suspension…"

"What!" he cringed at Rukia's outburst, "you can't do that!" he wanted to tell her that yes, they could. "He didn't even do anything wrong. We all…" she fell silent when the old man looked at her coldly. He could almost see her fall back onto her legs and sit quietly with her head lowered to the ground and Ukitake taichou's hand on her head.

The man sighed and shook his head. At least Kurosaki wasn't in the room, the outburst would've been worse. "Hitsugaya Toshiro," the man was actually going to start over, "as of this moment you are placed under suspension. The reason for your current suspension is an internal investigation into the mass amount of transferal request." There was a moment's pause. "Do you understand?"

"Yes, I understand." He answered simply. No use putting up an argument. "I do however have one request." Yamamoto sotaichou raised his brows, but gave him an imploring look, urging him silently to continue. "I request that all taichou duties be placed on Matsumoto fukutaichou." He could almost hear the woman groan. "She is the most familiar with the inner workings of the Division and I have absolute faith that she can lead this investigation on her own."

There was a brief pause from the old man. "Matsumoto Rangiku, step forward." She got up and stepped up beside him. "You are not representing taichou of the Tenth Division. Do you accept the duties of such a position?"

He could feel her pale blue eyes on him, she was questioning his motives and he knew it. "I do."

"Hitsugaya-san, you may leave. As of this moment you are not part of the Gotei thirteen."

He spun around, the haori fluttering around his legs, and stalked out of the First Division meeting hall. His steps were swift and graceful as he headed back to the Tenth Division barracks and essentially his quarters. He would pack and then he would take up residence in one of the various living quarters around Soul Society. He would specifically rent a house on the far outskirts of the Courts as to avoid any families. At least then he would be able to spend time with Rukia, far away from prying eyes. And maybe then he could convince her to do something about his raging hormones.

He had barely reached the Tenth Division when Rukia flickered into existence at his side. He wondered if she had shunpo'ed the whole way towards the Tenth Division or if he had just been so deep in thought he hadn't heard her calling out to him. "They can't do this." She snapped angrily as she followed him.

He chuckled. "They can." He answered. "I am not being blamed for genocide, Kuchiki." He said and shrugged. "Any Division that has more than a certain number of transfer requests has their taichou placed under suspension until the matter is resolved." He chuckled. "The maximum number of transfer requests a Division is allowed to have annually is twenty out of three hundred. My whole Division wants to leave, at least those that are left."

She glared at him, as if his easy acceptance of it was annoying her. "You're not supposed to take it this easy, _Taichou_." She snapped. "It was not your fault."

"I know that, Kuchiki _fukutaichou_," he placed as much sneering emphasis on the title as she had, "but I am also aware of the fact that nothing will get done if I remain within this Division. At least when the matter is resolved things will go back to normal."

He slid the shoji door to his quarters open and allowed her to enter first. She was still fuming. He slid the door shut behind him. "Toshiro," his stomach did that strange flipping thing it did whenever she said his name, "how the hell are they going to solve this if you're not leading them?"

He smirked. "Matsumoto," he said and slowly made his way towards her. His smirk widened when he watched as she backed away. "She's a smart woman." He reached up to cage her in when her back finally hit the wall. "I'm not leaving Soul Society," he said and stepped right into her personal space, pressing his body flush against hers, "she'd be able to bring me the evidence and I'll be able to lead the whole thing from behind the scene." He brushed his mouth across hers. "Besides, don't you trust Matsumoto fukutaichou?"

He pressed his mouth more firmly to hers. She tilted her head slightly backwards, parting her mouth slightly. He merely smirked and slipped his tongue into her mouth. She'd been eating chocolate before the meeting. He could taste the sweet beverage on her tongue as he coaxed it into play. He slid his hands down her side and pulled her even tighter to his body, holding her by the small of her back as he pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and nibbled softly on it.

She moaned softly and he smirked against her mouth again. He traced languid, open-mouthed kisses down into her neck, nuzzling the top of the shihakusho away and sucking softly on the skin between her shoulder and neck. His hands dropped to the front of her shihakusho, pulling gently at the sash that kept her robes shut. "…'Shiro…" she gasped out, her hands falling from his shoulders to his hands, clenching tightly and stopping him.

With her hands resting over his hand his head on her shoulder, he remained standing. Because dammit this isn't the first time she stopped him.

A soft childlike giggle resounded behind him and his eyes snapped open as he gazed at the wall, Rukia's body had gone rigid against his and for a second he wasn't sure if she could see the person – he had finally grown taller! – over his shoulder or not. There was the sound of someone sitting down on something and the scrape of a chair over the wooden floors, and then silence.

He swallowed and stepped back, staring into Rukia's large, fear brimmed violet orbs. He had to save her somehow. If he could just… "Yachiru fukutaichou, please hear…" he trailed off as he realized the person sitting on the backrest of his favorite plush chair was not Yachiru.

The girl sitting there was slightly shorter than Rukia. Her hair was snow white and tied on her head with an ice blue ribbon. Two thin braids of hair framed her beautiful childlike face. Each braid was braided with a different color weaved into her hair. One side was the same ice blue as the ribbon in her hair and the other was a deep violet, almost the exact same shade as Rukia's eyes. She had large, innocent looking blue eyes and a small button nose and a small pink mouth pulled into a bright, knee-weakening smile.

He swallowed. He was not familiar with this face. Most taichou didn't know every member of other Divisions, but he's never even seen this face before. There was nothing he could work on to save face with this person. He gritted his teeth on each other and looked at her seriously. He had no guarantee that she wouldn't say anything. Most shinigami were not tempted to disobey a taichou, he could order her to keep her mouth shut, but that won't work for the simple fact that he was under suspension and everyone knew it was coming.

She giggled again, the childlike sound suddenly causing ripples of fear to echo through his body. "Né, Hitsugaya taichou, isn't that against the rules?" she asked, grinning at Rukia.

He carefully steps in front of the other snow wielding shinigami and stares straight at the girl. "Who are you?" there was no reason he should make small talk first. Her word wouldn't count for anything if she's at the academy, he could say she was overworked and tired. No one would take a claim as serious as this seriously if it came from an academy student.

She blinked, looking a bit surprised that she wasn't being recognized. She pouted and Hitsugaya almost panicked when she fell backwards off the sofa. She twisted her body around and landed perfectly on the tips of her toes before setting her whole foot down. The other one was kicked up behind her. She set it down after she made a pirouetting turn and headed for the shoji door. She slid it open and poked her head out. "Né, Taichou," she whined softly, "they don't know me."

"Then remind them." The person on the outside said. Hitsugaya was struck by just how powerful he sounded. Where the girl's voice held a bell like innocence that voice was a deep, resonating baritone.

The girl stepped back into the room and turned sideways, her shoulder to the door and her other shoulder to them. Rukia was peeking out from behind his elbow. She huffed. "Né, Hitsugaya taichou, I feel insulted." She plopped down on the ground, disappearing behind the plush chair. "I left you such a pretty red present last week and you don't even remember me."

His blood froze and he stood motionless for a second. His spirit force lashed out around him, heightening to the point where Rukia was clutching painfully at his arm to stay on her feet. He ripped his arm from hers, drawing Hyourinmaru and kicking the plush chair out of his way. She was gazing up at him with those beautiful blue eyes of hers, but he couldn't find it in him to care as he swung the drawn sword down in a powerful arch. Dust and splinters shot into the air as his sword imbedded deeply into the ground and as it cleared and her giggles could still be heard his anger heightened.

He froze suddenly when she was standing chest to chest with him, her small arms wrapped around him and her mouth brushing across the thundering pulse in his neck. "Né, Hitsugaya taichou," she whispered, "they screamed really loud, didn't they?"

His hand curled into the back of her hair, clenching tightly as he pulled her head back at a painful angle. He gazed into that pretty face, more amused than in pain and growled deep in his throat as the shoji door was slid open. "I'm going to kill you," he hissed to the kid.

"Hitsugaya-san!" Ukitake's voice echoed through the room as he raised Hyourinmaru, sounding alarmed by what he dared to do, drawing his arm back. "Let that child go thi…"

Hitsugaya's eyes widened as he stared down at the little white haired wench in his arms. A searing pain echoed through his abdomen. His grip on Hyourinmaru slipped, the sword tilting tip first into the ground and remaining in that position as he sank to his knees. The girl's arm was elbow deep into his body. He was about chest level with her on his knees. His breathing was ragged and his vision was starting to blur. He's felt worse, he's experienced far worse during the war against Aizen, but it was as if something about this kid was draining.

She giggled and roughly pulled her hand out. "Né, Hitsugaya taichou," she said brightly, smearing his blood across his lips, "have you been screwing Rukia-chan?" he slumped forward, unable to reply. Blood slipped out of his mouth.

He heard the sound of swords being drawn, but couldn't be bothered with looking up. How had he not been able to predict what she was going to do? How had he not sensed the strength she would require for shoving her bare hand into someone of taichou class? How the hell had she gotten past the barriers his spirit force automatically put around him?

Her weight suddenly settled on his back and three sword stopped inches from his head. She giggled and he felt her hand in his hair, gently massaging his scalp. His blood was thick in his nose. His arms were shaking beneath him.

When the hell had he become this pathetic? When in the last five years had he slacked off enough for a kid to be able to shove her hand through his gut? Just what the hell was this kid?

She did that infuriating giggle thing again and nails that wasn't too long scraped against his scalp before clenching tightly in his hair and pulling his head back.

She grinned at him.

"Taichou and I are going to have fun killing you and Rukia-chan."


	4. Chapter 3

**I absolutely fail! I have only now realized that I think I screwed up Rukia's personality! And the biggest problem is that I like the way I've written her and it's out of freaking character! Damit, damit, damit! Le sigh, but ok. I'll leave it at that. I'm going to change the rating to teen, since anything sexual will only be applied anyway. I can't write anything even remotely like that, so I won't. I'm not stupid enough to try and ruin a story. Anway, in this chapter there is a lot of talk, so please bare with me, next chapter we get to see a personal view from our bad guys.**

**Enjoy!**

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Rukia's heart was hammering against her ribcage.

Hitsugaya was wincing painfully with the brat's hand in his hair. Ukitake taichou's sword was inches from her shoulder and his head. Her own sword wasn't that far from the girl either. It was as if there was an invisible force stopping them from attacking her. Not one that was placing a bubble around her, no she was sure if the swung their swords they would be able to hurt the girl, but it was as if they weren't capable of hurting her. It was as if something inside of them was making it impossible.

She giggled and pressed the tips of her fingers to her mouth before blowing Rukia the kiss. "Né, Rukia-chan, we'll play some other time." She said and just disappeared. There was no obvious motion of shunpo and no obvious sign of her having used spirit force. Words not meant for them floating through the air and causing a ripple of fear to slam into her gut and twist painfully at it.

'Né, Taichou, who are we going to play with now?'

She dropped Shirayuki and hurriedly kneeled beside Hitsugaya. "To – Taichou?" she whispered. His eyes were drooping, like he was tired, but the amount of blood she was afraid it was something up.

There was a small pause, a single moment where she couldn't think of one thing to do, but then he was swept up into Ukitake taichou's arms and they were hurrying through the Division area towards the Fourth Division. Orihime was most likely there receiving medical training as she had been since the war.

"Ukitake taichou what…" Unohana taichou trailed off for a second before hurriedly ordering several of things to be done. Ukitake taichou laid Hitsugaya down carefully and started to pull the shihakusho from his shoulders. "What happened?"

"We found what happened to the Tenth Division." Ukitake taichou said. "Heal him first, then we can talk. He'll probably be able to give a better account of the events than I can."

Orihime was called into the room and she instantly started with her fairies. Rukia wanted to stay, but Ukitake taichou sent her out to deliver a Hell butterfly to the rest of the taichou and fukutaichou to inform them of an emergency meeting. She was also tasked with finding Ichigo in the library or archives because the Hell butterflies just didn't go there for some reason. She passed Chad and Ishida, but barely spared them a wave.

Her thoughts were a cluttering mess of things. She couldn't think straight. Hitsugaya didn't have as much spirit force as Zaraki taichou, but no ordinary person would be able to even lay a scratch on anyone of taichou class because of their spirit force, which meant that the girl had to be, at the very least, someone of third seat rank, and definitely fast approaching fukutaichou level. It was the only seats – that fell in the sensible range for what this girl could do – that could touch someone of taichou level. Fourth seats through to tenth stand a chance – with the exception of Yumichika, he was much stronger than he gave forth to be – but most often their level of training wasn't even close to that of a third seat's.

And it was like she hadn't even cared about Ukitake taichou being there. It was as if her targets had been them right from the start.

Rukia pushed the library door open and looked at the clerk working behind the counter. The moment he looked up he sighed. "Medical aisle, not that he hasn't read nearly every book in there already," he grouched.

Rukia ignored him and hurried towards the aisle. Ichigo was sitting at the far end, his head buried in a book. Hanatarou was, for a change, not with him. "Ichigo,"

The orange haired teen raised his head and frowned at her. "What the hell happened to you?" he asked. He raised his brows. "You know, Hisagi told me about the meeting. It's not that bad. They could've fired him." He set a bookmark into the book and leaned back. Rukia smiled faintly at his attempt to comfort her. "Besides, I think it'll do him some good, get the stick up his ass out." He smirked at her. She managed a faint chuckle. "Rukia, smile, Toshiro is perfectly fine. He'll find something…"

"He was attacked." She managed to get out. "It was a girl." Ichigo blinked at her before he burst out in loud boisterous laughing. It was a reaction bound to have happened. She twitched, surprised that his laughter wasn't making her feel worse, but in fact better, and knocked him hard against the head with her fist. "Let me finish. It was the girl that laid waste to his Division."

Ichigo grabbed his book – which was a thick volume, with which murder could've been committed easily and no one would've bothered – and headed to the clerk at the front. He dumped the book there unceremoniously and left with Rukia, dragging her after him to the Fourth Division. She wondered briefly if the clerk knew what that action meant from Ichigo, because she didn't understand it at all.

The two of them stepped into the Fourth Division. Hitsugaya was pacing, the majority of his wound was healed, but the two fairies seemed highly displeased that he won't allow them to heal the whole thing. She wanted to tell him to sit down and suck it up and let them finish healing him. She kept her mouth shut for the simple reason that Ukitake taichou was going to ask questions that she didn't want to answer.

Hitsugaya was muttering to himself, talking in rapid sentences that made no sense to anyone. It was as if with each word he uttered to himself, his anger was escalating. It was as if he didn't even know they were there. Matsumoto seemed utterly calm, too calm, like she's seen this many times before. Like his reaction to this was normal. After a moment of deep silence he stopped, took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He stood motionless, his fingers curled towards his palm, but not clenched and his shoulders relaxed.

"She has a companion." He said calmly. "A friend or someone of high respect. She refers to his as 'Taichou'." He turned around and faced them, his features the very epitome of calm. "They were both at the massacre, she was obviously the instigator. There is a good chance that her nature probably stopped them from attacking, that and her speed. She's incredibly fast." He frowned, his brows furrowing and Rukia had to beat the urge to just smooth his brow over with her hands away. Now was not the time to be feeling emotions of any kind towards her superior, this was a serious situation and they could spend their moments alone later. "Her companion is probably the one that makes the orders." He muttered. "He should've been outside when you showed up." He said looking at Ukitake taichou.

Rukia's eyes widened, she had forgotten about the other person that had been there. Granted, if it wasn't for the fact that the girl had shoved her hand through Hitsugaya's gut, she'd have forgotten about her existence as well.

Ukitake taichou shook his head. "There was no one out there when I came to see you."

Hitsugaya cursed. "Well there was another one. I'm suspecting he's even stronger than she is." He crossed his arms and drummed his fingers. "I say we should send out search parties, three or four people along with someone of at least fukutaichou level. She's pretty distinct."

"But we can't sense them." Rukia voiced.

They looked at her, frowning as if they didn't understand what she was saying. "When the Division was attacked when knew something was going on, but there was absolutely no spirit force signature at the Division or on the victims. And then, Hitsugaya taichou and I was talking, she just appeared. We didn't know she was there until she giggled. And we didn't know there was a companion until she talked to him. Unless I'm mistaken, it takes a bit of power to shove your hand through someone, especially for a person as small and fragile looking as her, but we didn't sense anything."

Hitsugaya frowned, sitting down on the bed. The moment he was seated, the fairies were back to fully healing him. Relief flooded her. He would be advised against any fighting for a while, a day or two, but he was going to be ok. Ukitake taichou frowned slightly, less than amused as well. "That is true. I didn't sense anything hostile until she attack Hitsugaya taichou." He said confused. "I thought she was a child."

"Obviously she's not." Rukia looked at the orange haired male beside her. He was studying them as if they had all forgotten something rather valuable. "Did anyone bother asking her what they wanted?"

Rukia shook her head. "No. We didn't. But she said something about having fun killing Hitsugaya taichou and I." She bit her lip. "I think this is…personal. I think they think we did something to them." She motioned between herself and Hitsugaya. "I can't think of anyone I've personally done something to."

"I can think of lots. Maybe this is someone who is pissed that we allowed Aizen to betray Soul Society. Maybe this is someone who is pissed off at us for letting the Bount into Soul Society. Maybe it is someone who died during and Arrancar attack? Maybe its someone who was related to Lurichiyo in some way." He said. "There are lots of reasons. Lots of instances where all of us did something to piss someone else off."

"She was too specific, Kurosaki." Hitsugaya growled. "She specifically said Kuchiki and I."

Ichigo shrugged. "Then maybe it is someone who knew you during your days in Rukongai." He smirked. "Maybe it's someone who feels that you've abandoned them."

"We didn't grow up in the same place, Ichigo." Rukia murmured.

He glared at them. "People travel and people talk. Two people with the same thing in common could create the same end goal. Two people who hate two different things in the exact same way can get together and do something that will shock others. Obviously, that is possible." They were staring at him. His anger was a near touchable force and Rukia spent a moment wondering if he knew. If he knew what she had done to him. He sighed softly and his shoulders sagged. "I'm sorry." He glared out of the window. "I should've have…gotten angry."

Matsumoto patted his shoulder. "Its alright, Ichigo." He smiled faintly at her and Rukia wondered if he would forgive her if she showed support in his endeavors to woo Matsumoto.

"Well whatever the reason is, we should find them before they kill more people." Unohana taichou said softly. "Hitsugaya taichou's idea of search parties might work. We'll have to ensure that there is at least one member from the Eleventh and Fourth on the teams as well. That way we have someone willing to enter in battle and one that can heal the wounded." She explained.

Zaraki taichou suddenly chuckled, a maddening grin stretching across his face. He patted Hitsugaya on the head before leaning down and smirking at the other man. "I'll show ya how it's done, kid." Hitsugaya slapped his hand away and glared at him. Zaraki taichou laughed and walked from the room with an impressive billowing of his haori.

Hitsugaya's eyes darkened and Rukia felt anger towards the giant taichou. It wasn't Hitsugaya's fault, she surprised them. She was sure that Hitsugaya could've taken care of the situation had he known all of his opponent's abilities. Obviously Zaraki taichou is getting in way over his head because they still didn't know all of her abilities and there was an unaccounted for partner.

Rukia breathed deeply, she was sure her opinion was just being biased. "I can always attempt to draw her? That way we could put up posters to warn Soul Society with. It would be better than to just warn them of an unfamiliar face." She said thoughtfully. "I mean if we tell Soul Society to be careful of an unfamiliar face, we'll have a civil war on our hands. There are a lot of faces that aren't familiar with many of the shinigami."

Ichigo scoffed. "How about you describe her to someone who can actually draw?" he asked smirking. She glared at him. He was doing that thing where he insinuated that she was a terrible drawer again. The worst thing about it though was that Hitsugaya seemed to agree with him about it. What sort of secret boyfriend thought his girlfriend couldn't draw? "That'll work better than you attempting the drawing work." He said smirking.

"Drawing the girl, would still not give us her companion." Hitsugaya informed them. "However, I unfortunately agree completely with Kurosaki." Rukia huffed. Asshole.

"I don't want to be a…spoil sport, but does anyone here realize that the girl you describe cannot possibly have been the attacker of the Tenth Division?" Rukia looked at Soifon. Didn't they just say that the girl had said it herself?

Hitsugaya growled. "Are you implying that I'm deaf?" he sneered.

"Your Division, Hitsugaya-san, is scared stiff of someone that looks exactly like you and Kuchiki." She said firmly. "That would imply that your attacker is in fact not the one who committed the genocide." She sneered. "You described a white haired, blue eyed girl as the instigator. The recruits specifically said that it was Kuchiki who laid waste to the Division and that you stood by while doing nothing." She frowned at them. "Incompetence is unbecoming of your rank."

Hitsugaya glared at her. "Go away." He snapped and fell backwards onto the bed he had been sitting. Rukia tittered on the edge of hurrying to his side and staying where she was. She didn't need to add to Soul Society's list of scandals right now.

"What is wrong?" Unohana taichou questioned immediately.

"I had a fist shoved through my gut. I think that entitles me to being tired." He snapped, closing his eyes. Rukia studied his languid form. There was no way in hell he was tired right now, or at least not thinking about this whole mess. She knew him much better than he thought and unfortunately for him, so did the others. She could tell by the way they were all filing out of the hospital room, glancing briefly at him with that questioning look and wondering exactly what he was up to.

She headed to the door, softly closing it and clicking it shut. If anyone asked, she would say she wanted to stay with a friend, talk to him. They had gone through the experience together and they were just comparing notes on it. She stood in front of the door for a moment before turning around and sitting down beside him on the bed. He was tall enough now that if he sat with his legs off one end and lay across the bed, his head would hang off the other end.

"It was her." He muttered. "No matter what Soifon says, it was her."

Rukia frowned, she had begun to doubt the girl's words since Soifon brought it up. "Why are you so sure?" she asked softly.

"I don't know. I just know that she did it." He answered simply. Rukia studied him and leaned down so she could look him in the eyes. He studied her in return and for a few minutes that was all they did, look at each other.

"I hate that you sound so sure." She whispered softly. "I hate that this is happening. I hate that I have to lie. I hate all of this." She whispered softly.

He sat up and brushed her hair from her face. "I know." He said, his mouth quirking up at the side. "But you can just tell him now and hope he doesn't get too pissed."

"I wasn't talking about Ichigo."

"I know."

For a moment silence reigned over the room again. She smiled at him and got up. "I'm going to go now. Leave you to rest up." She said and waved over her shoulder as she headed to the door.

"Rukia," she paused at the call of her name. She could already imagine what he was going to say. She didn't really want to hear him say it. She wasn't a weakling, she knew she could take care of herself and chances were that sooner or later all of them were going to fight against whoever this girl and her companion was. And she was sure that all hell would break loose then.

"Be careful."

He said it anyway.

She paused at the door again, her hand on the door handle as the thought struck her. She bit her lip, wondering if he would find it strange or if he would be the one to do it this time. Instead she turned around and headed back to him, walking as slowly as she could and as silently. Of course he still knew she was there, but he didn't move. His fingers were laced across his stomach and his head still hung off of the bed. She crawled onto the bed and straddled his waist.

Hitsugaya cracked open an eye and raised his head slightly to look at her. She leaned down, brushing her nose against his. "Kiss me." She whispered.

He smirked at her, not allowing himself to be invited twice as he leaned up and captured her mouth with his. She wrapped her arms around his as he switched their positions.

For that single moment Rukia didn't care about the fact that if Unohana taichou or anyone else walked through that door they would be in trouble. She just reveled in the cold, icy taste of his mouth and the way he was making her forget about everything that was scaring her and how his hands were brushing against her sides.

And about how much he controlled himself from what he really wanted, which only proved how much he loved her back.


	5. Chapter 4

**This is a short chapter, but it introduces my main bad guys a bit better. Let's see, I wanted to thank you guys for the reviews (I haven't done that yet and I feel terrible), the alerts and favorites, you are all awesome cakes!**

**Enjoy!**

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**She trotted beside him, grinning and waving at nearly every inhabitant of Juninran. He merely ignored the display of attention drawing idiocy.

People were stepping out of his way faster than they were trying to look at him. He suddenly just understood. He's always got it, but now, now he truly _gets_ it. Nonetheless, this was not his problem. It had been two weeks since the massacre of the Tenth Division. A perfectly formed, wonderfully accomplished mission if he must say it himself. The weeks of exceptionally planning that had gone into that little coup had finally delivered. The Gotei Thirteen was in a shitty position.

One of their bests was slowly loosing his head over the fact that he was dying. The other couldn't care less. They were running three divisions without taichou. They were working a taichou without a division. Of course he would've loved to incapacitate even more Divisions, but for now the Tenth was enough. Besides, Divisions three, five and nine was going to fall apart on their own soon enough. A fukutaichou could only do so much to keep spirits up.

Their forces – as was usual – were in chaos, still coming together after the whole Aizen fiasco and now trying to work through the mass deaths of friends and family in the Tenth. He would give the bastard credit, it had been a wonderful idea to create the arrancar, but he could've gone at it a bit differently. Now had it been him, it would not have failed, but he was not interested in becoming king or some sort of god. No he was interested in something much more personal.

He stopped in front of the quaint little shop and his mouth quirked up into a smirk. He studied the mostly non-descript sugary treat shop. There was a soft squeal from the girl beside him as she entered the shop with little to no care. Not that he would bother stepping in if anything attempted to harm her. The girl laid waste to a whole division; she made fools out of people who saw themselves as geniuses. No, he was more inclined to feel sorry for the idiots who attacked her, and even then he would not be too sorry, after all, anything that attacks what belongs to him, deserved to die.

He followed her into the shop. Her arms were already loaded with various kinds of sweet treats, from sugared red beans to rock candy to chocolate. Two men, taller than himself, were watching her with mild amusement. He recognized them as Tatsukichi and Ayumi, Hinamori's friends. He smirked at them, cocking his head to the side slightly, before heading towards a shoji door at the back of the store. "Remember to pay for that," he threw over his shoulder.

She beamed at him and dumped her load of sweets – he shouldn't let her buy it, but for now he would – onto the counter and started to bag it while she chattered amiably to the two bastards. She was paying just as the door slid shut and as he walked through the familiar halls of the home behind the store he heard the door slide open again and soon enough her felt her arm brush against his as she nibbled on a chocolate, her bag dangling of a small wrist.

He slid a last door open and went down onto his knees, pressing his hands against the ground before the old woman. A show of respect, he smirked at the ground. He was going to enjoy this.

She dropped down beside him, sitting in much the same position. "Toshiro," his smirk widened, turned more sadistic, "I thought you were visiting next week. Momo-chan said that there was trouble with your Division."

He raised his head. "All will be sorted out soon." He sat back and studied her. The old woman was small, surprisingly so. He was half curious about how she's managed to live so long. "This is…"

"Kuchiki Rukia, I heard." She smiled politely to the girl beside him. Her eyes were wide for a moment, blinking innocently before she smiled brightly and extended her hand. "It is an honor to meet you, Kuchiki-san. And I am happy that one such as yourself has found an interest in our Toshiro."

He tilted his head to the side, curious for a moment. "Did Hinamori say anything else?" he asked. "About us." He continued motioning between himself and her.

"Oh, just that you have become close friends, but even I can see the truth. Though I doubt, Momo-chan has seen it. She's been theorizing though, thinks it's wonderful that you might be having a secret affair." She answered chuckling softly.

He chuckled softly. "She would, wouldn't she?" He got to his feet. "Actually, I came here to show you something, besides her of course." He said and reached for the sword sheaved on his back. He pulled the glinting weapon from the scabbard in a winding arc, holding both hands on to the hilt with the blade pointing down; just as the door slid open behind him. "Beautiful, isn't it? I don't think I've ever shown it to you." He said.

She wasn't paying attention to the sword at all. Granted, old Grams Hitsugaya had something else to worry about now. She was staring down at her own chest, confusion bright behind her old, wisdom filled eyes. She raised her hand to her chest just as he set the sword's tip into the ground. Blood sprayed from the wound as she raised those eyes to him, those eyes which were slowly fading towards unconsciousness.

"You are not…not Toshiro."

He smirked. He had never said he was. He turned slowly, sparing a brief glance at the girl. She was munching on some of the sugared red beans now, and smirked at the two men behind him.

Their eyes were wide as they stared at him and for a moment nothing happened. Just a moment before they scrambled away, falling over each other to reach the door of the shop first.

Now it has truly begun.


	6. Chapter 5

**Shiro-chan's birthday! So Happy Birthday to Shiro-chan! Anyway, I do however think that if he really ever existed, he would not be happy with what I did to him in this chapter. Anyway, there's a fight scene in here, my very fist fight scene. So I hope it's ok. Also, I like Hinamori. I have no problem with her and I think she is actually one of the coolest characters in Bleach, even if she's a bit weak. So don't flame me becuase of her being in here, I'm not going to change my mind and I'm not going to care. **

**Enjoy!**

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Kurosaki Ichigo should be killed off before he died. Maybe then his temper would not be so volatile every time he spent a few days in the Human World.

Hitsugaya's hands burned from the onslaught of attacks he had barely been able to block. He had offered to train with Kurosaki on the instance of Rukia. He was starting to regret his polite offering. It seemed like the kid had some anger to vent and a fight with Zaraki would've been more conducive than one with him. So far he's only been able to block, every attack Kurosaki delivered held and intent to kill. Every attack he delivered held a heart wrenching sorrow. Every attack he delivered spoke volumes of his frustration, anger and fear.

Hitsugaya felt the whizzing air of the blade as it sliced down his side. Inches from his shoulders and a purposeful miss; it clanged echoingly into the ground of the Private Training grounds of the newly acquired Hitsugaya estate. Zangetsu's blade slid into the ground from the force used and Hitsugaya stood panting, peeling his sore hands off the hilt. Kurosaki was sitting on his knees, staring at the ground with eyes more dead than he had ever seen the kid sport. Even during that time where his Hollow had been an impossible bastard.

"I don't want to die." He finally gasped out.

Hitsugaya sighed and lowered his sword. "Everyone dies, Kurosaki." He said simply and placed Hyourinmaru back in his place. "Besides, no one wants to die." He stated calmly.

"Oi, Shiro-chan!" he raised his head and rolled his eyes. Hinamori was starting to look years better. She had slipped into another coma shortly after the first battle with Aizen and his arrancar, but it hadn't lasted long. Shorter than the first coma she had slipped in. She was now happily dating Kira – though he did threaten the man with broken bones if he hurt her – and he hasn't seen much of his childhood friend.

She was toting her two friends from Rukongai after her. The two bastards annoyed the hell out of him, they were still afraid of him even though he didn't even come close to Rukongai anymore. He didn't have time to waste and they were a waste of his time. Kurosaki got to his feet, studied the two men with a scowl before grinning at Hinamori. Apparently the little wench was having lots of time to help Kurosaki woo his fukutaichou. "What? I'm busy!" he snapped.

The two men cowered, but glared at him nonetheless. "They just come from Grams' shop." She said, her eyes large and fear bright behind them. "They said that you and Kuchiki fukutaichou had visited Grams and that you had killed her." His blood froze.

No. No. No. Not Grams. Not her. Not his only family. No.

He sprinted through the grounds of his new estate, dodged people in the streets of Soul Society, ignored those who called after him and sprinted towards the gates that led to Rukongai. Through them he sprinted towards the center of Juninran, heading towards the shop/cottage his grandmother owned. The people of Rukongai were staring at him, glaring, but staying out of his way. He felt sick as he hurried through the shop and the small hallway towards where she would've been.

His legs gave out beneath him in the door and he just sat there, staring at his grandmother's lifeless body and the pool of blood. His heart hammered endlessly, his vision blurred from anger and tears and complete and utter hatred. His hands were shaking and his head was pounding and the smell of blood was making him feel faint and she WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAVE DIED!

The others must've seen his obvious fear and haste because he soon felt more spirit pressure in Rukongai than was normal. There was a soft tap of feet against the ground and then he knew Hinamori was with him, her familiar fiery pressure as familiar as his own cold pressure. Rukia's breeze like pressure was standing right behind him.

His heart lurked and his gut clenched uncomfortably and anger seared through his veins. Anger was making an acidic path straight to his core and he should've protected her. He should've protected her, she was his family, and his only family and he did not protect her. What did that make of him? And she died with the thought…died with the thought that he had killed her.

How, how is that possible?

"I want them fucking dead!" he roared as he slammed his hands harshly onto the ground.

"Né, Hitsugaya taichou, is it alright for you to look so pathetic?" he raised his head, blinking against the tears and cursed. The white haired wench was smirking at him; her blue eyes alight with amusement and her mouth quirked upwards as if she was trying to avoid outright laughing. "Taichou says that people of your rank shouldn't look like little boys who had their candy taken from them. He says it's unbecoming of their rank."

Hinamori screamed and launched an attack against the girl. Her blade sang as it sliced through the air and thudded heavily against the wooden floor, splintering dust inches from Grams Hitsugaya. She merely blinked at Hinamori, having side stepped the clumsy attack as if it was the easiest thing to do in the whole world. Hinamori stood blinking at her own sword. Hitsugaya couldn't help but be surprised as well. She had been getting training ever since Aizen was truly defeated. From various taichou and fukutaichou and Ryoka. Her speed had improved, as had her swordsmanship. Her kido had always been impeccable. And besides all of that, she had been getting training – four freaking straight hours of it – from Kurosaki. The kid was not lenient in the least.

Hitsugaya waited for the inevitable. She was going to kill Hinamori and he was going to stand there watching her do it. Instead she tilted her head to the side and settled a foot on one of the side blades. Hitsugaya's eyes widened at the pure apology in the white haired girl's eyes as she twisted her body around and slammed her foot hard against Hinamori's shoulder. There was a distinct crack as Hinamori flew straight to the right side wall into the garden area of the yard. She caught Tobiume's hilt before the blade could clatter to the ground and gently set it against the wall, as if apologizing for abusing her wielder and stepping on her blade.

"Hinamori!" Kira shouted, dodging Rukia and sprinting through the crashed in wall.

She cringed when a soft, pained sound came from Hinamori and anger flashed through Hitsugaya. She caused the girl pain and then looks like she feels sorry about it. He got up, drew Hyourinmaru and stepped forward, arcing the blade down hard at her. Hinamori was a fukutaichou; there was a chance that she would be able to defeat Hinamori without much preamble. There was no chance she would be able to pull that trick against a taichou. She barely moved; an inch from her head the blade came to a dead halt, his heart hammered against his chest as he realized exactly what she had just done.

Not even a fukutaichou would dare touch the blade of a taichou class zanpakuto.

Her fingers were curled around the slim blade, her eyes drawn to the blade as if it was the most interesting thing she had seen in years. For the first time he wondered exactly how old she was. She looked even younger than him. She uncurled her hand and slowly dropped her hand, her fingers trailing against the blade as if she didn't really want to let it go. He could already imagine the conversation he was going to have with Hyourinmaru after this. It was as if she was caressing the blade.

His moment of utter astonishment prized him with a swift kick to the gut that sent him flying into the bedroom area of the small cottage. Her shook his head and got to his feet, swiftly jumping up. The moment she appeared within reach, he swung the sword hard at her. She flipped one leg over the blade and hooked her foot beneath it. She used his grip on the sword as leverage to twist her body around and slam her other foot into the side of his head. As dust and splinters settled around him from flying through the wall into the streets of Juninran, he was dimly aware of Hyourinmaru informing him of the fact that he was getting his ass kicked by a girl. The Ice Dragon also informed him that he was highly disappointed by the fact that he was left with the enemy.

He blocked a punch heading straight for his face. She was either holding out on him or he was actually much stronger than he thought. While her kicks were flawlessly powerful, he hasn't broken anything yet. He deflected another punch, his hand a faint brush against her wrist. She twisted on her foot, the movement almost a ballerina's pirouette and landed her foot hard against his collarbone. He hissed in pain, but settled both hands on her foot, keeping her firmly in place before twisting his body around and slamming his foot into her side.

She skidded away from him, blinking curiously in surprise. His head was pounding, a painful ache just behind his eyes and a throbbing in the side of his head. His collarbone felt like it was on fire, a burning pain echoing through his body at rapid pace.

He watched as she shook her hand lightly through the air once before she shifted her body and raised her hands. Her fingers were curled at the top of her palm of one hand and the other was pressed close to her body in a fist with her wrist up. Hitsugaya groaned softly, the kid was kicking his ass; he was clearly in more pain than she was.

There was a small pause, but then she crouched down, her hair flying up behind her and twisted her body while shooting a leg out beneath her. For a moment he was confused, she was too far…his back slammed into the ground as she reappeared seconds later after she disappeared. He rolled away from a foot coming down hard and scrambled to his feet, sending his own kick out when she aimed another one at his head. He hooked his leg around hers and sent her crashing hard to the ground, going down with her and straddling her waist before she could get up again.

His hands slipped around her neck and he pressed down, watching as a flash of fear echoed in her eyes. If he couldn't kill her with a sword, he'd do it with his bare hands. Her hands flew up to his wrist and he found a sick satisfaction from the way her eyes rolled back into her skull and the way her not too long nails dug into his skin and the way she tried to gasp something out and the way she just felt like she's fucking dying. And this is all for Grams Hitsugaya because they had no right pulling her into their sick, twisted game.

Her eyes were fluttering and her grip was lessening and just as he was about to break the little bone that would allow her to keep breathing, a foot slammed hard into his chest and sent him flying off her. He flipped his body over, landed on his hand and twisted around to land on his feet. He stumbled slightly, but kept up right. She was coughing, spluttering as she rolled over onto the ground and pushed herself up on all fours besides a man about his height who looked a bit older than him.

The man had eyes a deep midnight blue that was almost dark enough to be black. His hair was a messy mop of black tresses and his mouth was quirked up into a smirk. "Murder," he said lowly as he glanced down to the girl, Hitsugaya immediately recognized his voice, that patronizingly deep voice that had informed her to remind them a week earlier, "Hitsugaya-san is a gentleman's game." He continued calmly with amusement still in his voice. He sighed. "And you've managed to make Rei-chan bleed. What self respecting commander would let their best soldier die?" he questioned as the girl used the material of his hakama to pull herself up.

Rei glanced over her shoulder him, her blue eyes dark with anger. He smirked at her. It wasn't his style to taunt his opponent, but she pissed him off, her mere existence was annoying him. He leaned forward and patted his thighs. "Come here, puppy, come and get me." Anger flashed through her eyes, completely evaporating the childish nature she had been sporting as she spun around and sprinted straight to him. She vaulted herself into the air; he raised his arms and blocked the first attack with his arms. His head snapped up as she brought the other leg down. He forced his body to fall backwards and pulled and arm out to catch her ankle. She smirked down at him and used the leverage of her foot in his hand and slammed it hard against the side of his head.

Stars burst across his eyes as she flipped backwards. He was going to have a concussion after this. He blocked another punch heading for his face clumsily, trying to regain his stumbling bearings and cursed softly when she merely used the balance of the deflect against him by thrusting the same hand hard into his shoulder. She folded her small hands together, lacing her fingers and swung her folded fist hard at his chest, almost like she was hitting a homerun on a baseball field. The resulting hit sent him flying straight through his grandmother's shop's walls – in a new place – right through until his was eating sand beside Hinamori where she was being healed by Inoue.

His back arched of the ground, pain searing through his chest, before he collapsed down. His eyes widened briefly before he clenched them shut hard as she came down hard, aiming both legs hard at his chest. He figured the results of that attack hitting would be a crack, or collapsed breastbone. It would hurt like a bitch.

He slowly opened his eyes to find Rukia's pure white blade straining slightly beneath the girl's marginal weight, inches from his chest. Rei straightened up and flipped back, landing at his feet and studied Rukia for a moment. For a moment she looked utterly surprised, but a slow smile crept across her face and she spun around, flipping her hair over her shoulder in a way that would've made Matsumoto proud and then she calmly headed to the door.

"I don't want to play with you yet, Rukia-chan. You're not strong enough and I don't want to kill you too quickly." She said over her shoulder. "I had fun Hitsugaya taichou, we should do this again some time." She said with a flick of her hand.

Rukia was staring after her; she spared another moment of staring before sinking down beside Hitsugaya. "Are you alright?" she whispered softly, ignoring the fact that they were surrounded by people who would not appreciate the fact that they had broken a million and one rules by merely considering the thought of kissing each other as she brushed his hair from his eyes.

He merely laid back and waited for Orihime to finish with Hinamori. "Yeah," he mumbled and threw one arm over his eyes.

He just got his ass kicked – again, again! – by a kid possibly younger than himself. What the hell was wrong with him? Why couldn't he fight back the way he knew, the way everyone knew, he could? Why did he keep holding back? That was not his full power, he knew it, he could've killed her easily if he had just fought her with all he had. But he didn't, he had held back. He raised his head and slammed it back into the ground. What was wrong with him?

"Toshiro," he dropped his arm to look into the pair of concerned violet orbs and smiled faintly.

"You're on duty, Kuchiki fukutaichou." He murmured.

Her eyes narrowed. "Who cares about duty?" she shouted. And he let her, because the sooner it came out, the easier it would be to handle all the shit that was going on. "You could've died!" she continued to shout angrily and he realized with faint surprise that she was crying. "She would've killed you and you weren't even trying!" he cringed at those words, becoming faintly aware of the fact that there were people standing in that hole while his grandmother's shop was being cleaned up. "What am I supposed to do if you're gone?" she whispered, her eyes wide and filled with fear.

Guilt washed over him. "Kuchiki," he murmured softly.

"You are both going to face a court martial when the Sotaichou finds out about this." Rukia's head snapped in Kyouraku's direction, her tear filled eyes wide as she stared at him.

"I support Shiro-chan and Rukia-chan fully!" Hinamori's injured arm shot into the air as he made her claim. A second later she was cradling her arm to her chest at her elbow, whimpering. "Ow, ow, ow!" she whined.

Kyouraku shook his head slowly. "Your opinion won't count for much, Hinamori fukutaichou." He said sounding half amused. Hitsugaya cringed.

"Shiro-chan leaves, I leave." She said firmly. "Simple as…"

"Won't be much of a loss." Hitsugaya groaned and raised his head to the roof of his grandmother's shop. He cringed slightly at the thought of what laid inside of it. "But we are having so much fun, we wouldn't want it to end too soon, would be Shinsui-san?" the black haired bastard questioned tauntingly, crouched as he gazed down at them. "How's the shoulder, Hina-chan?"

"Don't call me that." Hinamori sneered coldly.

He chuckled softly. "Hitsugaya-san, next time you and I will enjoy each other's company. As such, we have to leave now." It literally looked like he dissolved into thin air.

Rei remained standing, gazing down at them for a moment longer. Hitsugaya pushed himself up and glared at her. "You enjoy causing me pain, right?" he asked. She tilted her head to the side but said nothing, watched him in silence. "You really hate us."

She smirked, her eyes darkening and a sadistic look crawling into her eyes.

"You have no idea."


	7. Chapter 6

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**I'm almost done with this story...I just have one more chapter to write up and then I just have to post. I had fun with it though. Anyway, I hope the explanation of what they are is understandable. Ask if there is something you don't understand. I'll be happy to try an explain it in a better way. Hmm, I don't have much else to say, probably that this ended up more of a 'adventure' in some sense story than a romance story. Romance is like a background for this. Dunno, anyway, Enjoy!**

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_You have no idea,_

Those words rang in Rukia's head as she sat in Ukitake taichou's office. She wasn't sure where Hitsugaya was getting his lecture and from whom, but she knew she was either going to be feeling immense guilt over the man she loved to death or she was going to be the happiest person on the planet when she walked out of the office.

She frowned slightly and stared out of the office window. It made no sense. Rukia's never seen the girl before and from what she's gathered by merely watching Hitsugaya, neither did he. Whatever reason she had for hating him, couldn't be plausible. She shuddered, not only did he have the insane girl to worry about; he also had that other guy to worry about. Rukia didn't want to say much, but it pretty much looked like Hitsugaya was screwed sideways on an open fire spit.

Rukia sighed. They were strange, truly and utterly strange. What sort of shinigami couldn't be sensed? It was like they weren't exactly human. Like they were made of something other than flesh and bone, it wasn't normal. Rukia shuddered as she thought of them. It was as if a cold, dark hatred surrounded them. Childish as the girl was, there was something about her that said she was far more grownup than she acted.

The shoji door to the office slid open and Kiyone stepped into the room, pressed her hand against the ground beside her knee and kept her head down. It was odd to see the third seat in such a respectful position in front of her. "Kiyone-chan?" she questioned softly.

The girl glanced up at her, a sympathetic look in her eyes. "Sotaichou-sama requests your presence immediately." Rukia's heart hammered as she nodded her head and got up. Her knees felt weak, like she'd fall if she tried to walk on her own. She stood in front of her seat for a moment, just stood there and breathed in and out as if it would help. She couldn't not go. That would be a sign that she regretted having this relationship and if there was anything she didn't regret it was this.

And turning Ichigo into a shinigami, but she wasn't sure how to feel less guilty.

She exited the room and walked as fast and as slow as she could go at the same time. Her heart hammered incessantly and she wondered for a moment when she had become so…afraid of everything. She frowned and shook her head. She wasn't scared. She honestly wasn't scared. If they revoked Hitsugaya's status, they would have to revoke hers as well. And if Hitsugaya had to leave – which in their current situation she doubted would happen – so would she. She wasn't some impassive, easily conned girl who was merely dating her superior because he demanded to have a sexual (which wasn't even the case) relationship with her.

And if she would, she would fight for what she thought was right.

With her mind made up she marched towards the First Division. Upon arrival she discovered that every taichou and fukutaichou and Ichigo and Orihime were present. Hitsugaya was standing in the center, between Matsumoto and Hisagi. With a deep breath she stalked right up to him, listening faintly as the door thudded shut behind her, spun him around and kissed him full view of the whole room. Her hands were tightly gripping the front of his haori and her mouth pressed hotly to hers and for a second she just lost herself in the feel of him. The way his mouth moved against hers even though a moment ago they had been slightly uncertain. She slipped her hands up and into his hair, because God he had nice hair, and made a soft sound when his tongue slipped into her mouth.

A second later he was pulling away, chest rising and falling slightly faster than was normal. "Rukia?" he murmured lowly.

She ignored him and tightened her arms around him in a hug and glared over his shoulder – she had to stand on her toes to accomplish this – at the Sotaichou. "I don't care about your stupid laws or your stupid rules or your stupid punishment." She said firmly. "I love him." Had Byakuya-niisama been capable of emotion, he would probably have looked on the display in horror. "And if you plan on sending him away, I leave with him. I'll stick with him no matter what you say."

There was a long pause, a deep silence that was starting to make her think that the conversation they had been having had nothing to do with her and Hitsugaya. "Kuchiki fukutaichou, I don't care." The old man stated firmly.

"What?" Hitsugaya asked shocked, stepping out of Rukia's arms. "We're breaking one your most ancient laws and you don't care?" he was clearly confused. Rukia glared at his back, confused about why the hell that was a bad thing! "Shouldn't there be some sort of punishment?"

"I do not have time for the trivial matters of children, Hitsugaya taichou." He said calmly, in that commanding tone of his that suggested if people didn't shut up soon they were going to be wishing they had. "However, if you are eager for punishment, discuss it with Kuchiki taichou."

"No. That's…I'm sorry for…" he just trailed off, waving his hands around in a nervous manner. Ichigo started to snicker as Rukia raised her fist and hammered it down on his head. "What the hell…" he glared at her.

"That's for wondering about it!" she snapped and hurried to her place before they really got into trouble.

If the Sotaichou wasn't going to punish them for breaking the law, then she wasn't going to complain. It almost meant that Ichigo stood a chance with Matsumoto. She beamed up at Ukitake taichou as the Sotaichou cleared his throat and Hitsugaya returned to his place. She wondered for a moment exactly why he had been standing there if it wasn't for the fact that he was in trouble.

Rukia glanced over the people in the room and finally noted one she hadn't seen earlier. It was a tall, brunette with large, innocent looking brown eyes. He was sitting in the far corner, eating chocolate chip cookies and looking mildly out of place in his white yukata and messy hair. He had an open face and a small nose and a plump mouth that seemed quite happy to devour the chocolate chip cookies that were more chocolate than cookie from the way his fingers were coated with it. He seemed happy to go unnoticed, so she decided to pay attention to whatever the Sotaichou was saying.

The old man was saying something that made little to no sense to Rukia. He was using terms and explanation she's never even heard of. Rukia glanced around the room and sighed in relief when she realized she wasn't the only one not understanding. Ichigo had this scowl on his face that said volumes about his understanding levels, Hinamori and Kira's faces were scrunched up as they tried to comprehend what was saying. Matsumoto was just staring at Ichigo, obviously not even listening. The busty fukutaichou was obviously not even one to just pretend. None of the taichou looked like they understood or didn't understand, but she was pretty sure the majority fell into the latter category – especially Zaraki taichou.

"Omae," the boy in the corner raised his head and sighed, sucking on his fingers as he got up and headed towards the Sotaichou. "Explain this to them."

Omae sat down, grinned cheerily and snapped his fingers. His bowl of cookies seemed to melt into the air and reappeared in his lap seconds later, in a move similar to the girl and her companion's disappearing trick. Rukia concentrated, allowed her senses to flow around him but picked up nothing. "I am an _Other_." He said calmly.

"A what?" Ichigo questioned darkly.

"An _Other_," he said again and raised his chocolate covered hands before any could ask anything, "I am like Hiro and Rei." He said smiling innocently. "Much younger, lots and lots of decades younger than either, but I am like them nonetheless."

"You don't seem like a sadistic, insane brat with a desire to hate us." Kira said slowly.

He blinked cutely before popping another cookie into his mouth. He sucked on his fingers for a moment and beamed at the blonde as if he was the nicest person the brunette has ever met. "No. Probably not, but if I was as old as they were I'd have probably been the same." He said and tilted his head to the side. "No I'm lucky; I'll probably die in a couple of days."

Rukia's eyes widened. "Why, why would you be happy about that?" she asked aghast. How could anyone be happy to die?

He blinked and frowned slightly. "Weren't you listening?" he asked softly. "An _Other_, comes into existence because of an unresolved issue. Something that torments and hurts and tears at the person that has the issue, most often an _Other_ is created from fear, loneliness, worthlessness or feeling pathetic." He explained calmly.

"You keep saying _Other_, like it means something." Hisagi fukutaichou said slowly. "What exactly is an _Other_?"

Omae looked thoughtful for a moment before smiling. "Imagine it like this. When you close your eyes in day light, you can still see some light through your eyelids, right?" they nodded. "And when you close your eyes during the night with no lights turned on, you can't even pretend to see the motion of your hand going up and down in front of your eyes, which you'd have seen during the day, right?" again they nodded. "That is the difference between a Shinigami and an _Other_. Essentially we are the exact same being, but an _Other_, is second version of a shinigami. Shinigami would represent the light, while the _Other _would represent the darkness." He held up his hand before anyone could ask more questions. "We are everything our creator is not. If our creator is weak, we are strong. If our creator is strong, but doubt their powers, we are confident. The differences are there, but things like relationship, certain emotions, certain actions are the same as our creators. In the beginning we are exactly like our creators. You can almost say we're an alter personality."

"You said they're created from unresolved issues. And that you're lucky, that you'll die, how's that?" Ichigo asked.

He grinned. "Once a creator's issue is resolved, we disappear. We die. It is what any _Other_ normally wants." He leaned forward. "My creator will probably finish resolving her issue in another day or so." He explained. "When a creator starts resolving their issues we become weaker and eventually we die."

"Normally?" the boy tilted his head at Hitsugaya's question, as if considering it.

"Normally. However, given time to grow, to simmer on the negative thoughts of a creator, an _Other_ can grow so strong that no matter how fast you resolve the issue, they won't die. You'll have to kill them." Rukia's heart lurked. "Normally because Hiro and Rei are obviously the exception. From what I've figured out they want to destroy their creators and take their place.

"Then how do we discover who their creators are?" Hitsugaya asked crossing his arms.

Omae rolled his eyes and huffed. "You're being dumb, Shiro-chan." He whined. "Of all the questions you can ask, you ask the easiest one!" he whined. Rukia couldn't help but think how much Hinamori this guy was.

"Hinamori," Matsumoto said slowly, as if having read Rukia's thought. "Hinamori's your creator."

For a moment Omae seemed confused, unsure how the topic came up. He grinned innocently nonetheless and nodded his head. "That's true. Hinamori-chan is dealing with what created me, so I'll be going soon." He said simply. "But back to the questions at hand. Shiro-chan is Hiro's creator and Rukia-chan is Rei's creator." He said simply.

"So how do we…how do we figure out what created them?" Rukia asked slowly.

Omae smiled. "You think of the time where you felt most worthless, most pathetic, most unwanted, most lonely and you'll know. But even if you do, you won't be able to just resolve it and they'd be gone. They're too old."

"From where on does it become too old?" Hitsugaya asked slowly.

Omae studied him silently for a moment, as if he wasn't sure he wanted to answer it. "Well," he murmured softly, "the limit in which a person is normally given to resolve their issue is ten years." He sighed softly. "But Hiro and Rei had years to simmer with every insecurity or fear you've ever had. And combine that with Rei's utter loyalty to Hiro and his ability to command forces so well that they'd wet their pants on his command, you have a bit of a problem."

Rukia sighed softly and ignored the rest of the conversation. She stared at the ground beneath her and wondered momentarily when she could've possibly created Rei. She had always had friends surrounding her, when her and Renji's three friends died, she had accepted it as a part of life. She had lived with it. And when Renji was placed in the advance class and she wasn't, she had accepted it, she was proud of him. Happy for him.

Her eyes widened.

She had been at her unhappiest right after she had been adopted into the Kuchiki clan. She had felt worthless and pathetic and lonely. She had felt like she was seen as less than a person by the Kuchiki clan. As if she wasn't good enough for their ranks even though they had gone to her, she hadn't asked to be adopted into the clan. And she had missed Renji. He had been beneath her standards because of her new position as the Kuchiki princess. She had not been allowed to associate with him, she had graduated early and had left him behind. She hadn't talked to him in well over sixty years after her adoption until the point where she had met Ichigo.

"I've met her before." She suddenly whispered. "Right after I was adopted into the Kuchiki clan, about four weeks after my adoption."

She remembered the little girl now. She had been staring up and Rukia with the prettiest blue eyes and the biggest smile and the sweetest little pins in her hair that Rukia had wanted to hold her and hug her, but Byakuya-niisama had glanced at the girl with a reproachful look and she had walked by as if she's didn't even see the girl.

Omae stared at her with curiosity. "That's rare. No _Other_ would approach their creator for any reason, normally."

"She looked about four years old." Rukia continued to whisper.

Omae seemed to sport a looking of realization. "That could be why. Most _Others_ are created at a reasonable age. It's rare that we're created younger than twenty human years." He nodded towards Hinamori. "I wanted to visit her, tell her that I didn't mind being here and that I would wait until she figured it out, but Rei isn't going to do that with you. She will fight you and she will try to kill you and if you survive, I will be happy."

"If? Of course Rukia'll survive, no little kid created from her…" Ichigo trailed off when Omae looked at him.

"That little kid," he said slowly, "is my best friend." He smiled faintly. "She found me. She kept me alive when I figured I was going to go insane from everything that was running through my head and wasn't even mine to be afraid of, to hate to feel like shit for." He shook his head. "But Hiro's ideals weren't mine. And Rei chose him, not me."

"Why would Rei-chan choose someone who is plotting murder?" Hinamori asked confused. She winced as she moved the arm with the broken shoulder around.

Omae laughed softly. "Because I'm eighty years too late to try and stop her from Hiro's ideals. He's older than her. Did you know? He's been around almost four decades longer than her." He looks of sadly in a direction. "And besides, he's stronger. She's always been attracted to strong things and he was around first too. Can't fight what was around long before you were even created."

"How old are you?" Kira asked softly.

"Six," he answered. "I was created a little before Aizen's betrayal." He spat the name with pure, uncontrolled hatred. "She found me wandering in Zaraki. How I ended up there is beyond me. Rei had looked at me, giggled and shoved her fist through a guy looking for trouble. Then she promptly told me I'm the weakest thing she's ever come across that I would be the absolutely most adorable pet she's ever had. And Hiro taichou would not be able to say no after she made him say yes, over and over and over again. Her direct words."

Rukia blinked. "Over and over? I don't understand."

Omae smiled. "Well I pretty much got the gist of it when she shoved him against the nearest wall and kissed him in a way that would make any man wish they were him." He shook his head. "At that time she was already way older than me. I was the kid she could take care of. Hiro never needed taking care of."

"When'd you leave?" Hitsugaya asked slowly.

"Right after I figured out exactly what Hiro was planning. Round the same time Shiro-chan and everyone went to the Living world…"

"Would you stop with the Shiro-chan?" Hitsugaya snapped.

Omae blinked momentarily, he grinned. "No. Anyway, Hiro and Rei were mighty pissed off that Rukia-chan went after the Inoue girl."

"Tell us more about them," Unohana taichou said suddenly.

Omae shrugged. "Hiro loves Rei. Remember that. He will step in and he will hurt anyone that hurts Rei. He loves her more than anything in the whole world. And Rei loves him right back." He tilted his head up towards the ceiling.

"And no matter how easy you might think it is to kill an _Other_, it's not."


	8. Chapter 7

**This is probably one of my favorite chapters to have written. It was fun. Its not a very long chapter, but I think it gets across what it should get across. Hope you guys enjoy it! **

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Rei gazed down with mild fascination as her own blood coated her once clean hand.

The other hand was soaked with the blood of the girl. The annoying, useless girl who was almost the reason all of this was worthless. It wasn't marginally as important as seeing her own blood, which was something she's never seen before. She brushed the thumb of her right hand across her mouth, in some way trying to rid her mouth of the taste of her blood, but it only worsens the situation and she looked up at her approaching opponent.

She's never come across someone she couldn't kill before. A simple hand through the gut was something she was quite accomplished at, but this man…it didn't work that way. She had pulled her hand back as far as it could've gone, had straightened her fingers and had slammed it forward hard, and instead of going through the bandages around his waist and through the flesh and into his gut and ripping him apart, her hand had folded into a fist and his back hand had slammed her through the wall of the Eleventh Division into the Tenth.

He was grinning at her manically. It was a look she's seen before, she actually spent time in all four of the Eightieth Districts of the Four corners of Rukongai, there were many men with those grins, but this one, this one was scary. This one seemed less afraid of what she might be capable of doing in return.

As it turns out, that would be nothing.

She backed up, stumbling over a couple of broken bricks, further into the Tenth Division. Hoping that Hiro would come and save her again was a bit redundant. He wasn't going to show, not because he figured she deserved getting her ass kicked, but because he was not even remotely close to Soul Society. Fighting someone she couldn't kill in the Tenth Division was not how she pictured dying. Much less was it from internal bleeding, not that this bastard was going to kill her in the first place.

She shifted her body, held one arm close with the wrist turned up and brought the other out, her fingers curled above her palm and watched as he laughed boisterously to the air. She cringed at that sound and hoped for all she was worth he wouldn't say something to piss her off, which in turn would cause her to stick around longer than she had to. Inoue was dead. Unless the girl could reject her own death in death, she was staying that way. There was no need for Rei to stick around.

She sighed. Hiro was going to call her stupid for this, but it had to be done. Some arrogant, smirking bastard who managed to plow her through a wall needed to learn that there were some things that just weren't supposed to be done. She dissolved into the air and reappeared practically in front of him, twisting her body around and slamming her foot into the side of his head. The man merely blinked at her as he caught her leg, keeping her from going to the ground.

She shrieked as he threw her into a nearby building with enough force to crash her through the wall. She slammed into the back of something and was dimly aware of a few cracks, whether they came from her body or whatever she had hit, was something that was left to be discovered. The Zaraki brute was starting to piss her off.

"Né, Zaraki taichou," Rei managed to get out as she pushed herself up, "shouldn't you be off somewhere, doing your hair or playing with Yachiru fukutaichou?" she groaned softly as she came to her full height, something of hers was definitely cracked, "or better yet, shouldn't you be going off somewhere to die?"

There was a low chuckle of amusement. "I told him." He said simply. "I told him I'd show him how it was done."

She spat out a clump of blood, shuddering at the sight of the life elixir leaving her body. Who'd have thought that after spending decades of causing people vast amounts of pain and licking their blood of her hands she'd become concerned about seeing her own. It didn't look much different and it didn't really taste different so she could just pretend. It was hard to pretend it was someone else's when she could practically feel the internal bleeding. She closed one eye and just studied him through the other, pressing a hand to her side in an attempt to feel less pain.

"I don't like being parts of bets I wasn't aware of." She said and shrugged, keeping the wince off her face as much as she could. "I like to know who the winner is before I play with them." She smiled, picturing herself as looking slightly insane with the blood on her mouth. "I guess I'll just have to kill you."

"You've been doin' a great job, kid."

She reached a hand behind her, visualizing the black scabbard and hilt into place, and grasped her hand around the hilt of her zanpakuto. She drew the sword carefully. The unreleased zanpakuto resembled every other unreleased zanpakuto, the blade's tip was slightly curved and the hilt was decorated with decorative string. She grasped the blade in two hands and shifted her legs. She didn't like fighting with a sword, having always been more comfortable with hand-to-hand combat, but she was not incompetent. Her skills were good, Hiro would've had a field day if she had only learned how to use hand-to-hand.

"This wasn't part of the plan, but I guess Taichou'll make an exception." She muttered and swung the sword in a hard downward arc as she disappeared and reappeared behind him. The blade thudded dully against his back and for a moment she stared at it.

What. The. Hell.

What the hell was this guy made of? Reinforced steel? She lived decades and never has she come across someone she couldn't fight. Zaraki spun around; his hand slammed into her chest and sent her flying through another wall. Somewhere in the back of her mind a voice was informing her that this was a beating and not a fight and that any self-respecting soldier would retreat before they died. She hissed at the voice, reminding it to shut up and let her do what she was good at. This bastard was going to die, even if he broke every bone in her body. He couldn't kill her, not even with this; there was nothing that could kill her.

She pulled up into a crawling position and spat more blood from her mouth. For something that couldn't kill her, it was hurting like hell. She slowly got to her feet, her knees felt like jelly beneath her and her head was pounding and she was sure something was broken and pressing into something else inside of her. The zanpakuto was shaking in her hand, the blade rattling. She grasped it with both hands, steadied it and took a deep, even breath, she was going to be fine, nothing to worry about.

He couldn't kill her.

The bastard wasn't even trying. He wasn't even really fighting her with combative skills, he was just swinging his arms around and landing lucky hits. Stuff she should've been able to dodge.

She stumbled back and cursed, her eyes widened when she felt something firm behind her. She closed her eyes briefly before tilting her head back and staring up into Zaraki's sadistically smirking face. He raised a hand, fingers curled against his palm in a fist, and slammed down. Rei sighed softly, grasped the blade tightly in her hand and dissolved into the air.

She stumbled out of the teleportation in Inuzuri. She cursed as she glanced around the pathetic village. She glanced around it, the Princess in her really found it disgusting. She wrinkled her nose and frowned slightly. She hadn't really thought about where she was going, and when she didn't think about where she was going she normally ended up wherever Hiro was. Why would he be here of all places? She replaced the zanpakuto into its scabbard and smiled when its weight flickered out of existence. She loved her zanpakuto, it never complained and it always allowed her to do things in the way she wanted to do it.

She stumbled forward, cringing at the pain she was finding herself in. It was completely and utterly new to her. "Oi, Lady!" she narrowed her eyes, anger simmering beneath the surface and raised her hand.

She studied the person, he looked older than her, but that didn't count for anything around the Spirit World. She smiled innocently. "Hado, Fifty-four," she flicked her hand to the side and a moment later the boy was incinerated. He should've known better than to talk to a stranger. She studied her hand for a moment and sighed in displeasure. Her Haien was off. It was less destructive than normal.

"That girl had better be dead if you are here."

She raised her head and glared coldly at her companion for a moment. Anyone else would consider it a stupid move, but she knew him inside and out, chances were he'd just glare back. He frowned slightly, studying her more carefully. For a moment she wanted to turn away from those intensive dark blue orbs of his. "What the hell happened to you?"

She huffed and shoved her hands into the sleeves of her shihakusho and stalked off in a direction. She heard the soft thud of his feet hitting the ground. "Zaraki Kenpachi happened."

Hiro sighed softly; clearly unhappy about that. "I said kill the girl. I didn't say engage in battle."

"I did kill the girl. Inoue is dead. I just didn't realize he was there until he was sending me through a wall." She frowned slightly, annoyed by her own carelessness.

"The man has more spiritual energy than half of Soul Society put together, how the hell did you miss him?" he sneered coldly.

She spun around, grasping the front of his shihakusho and slammed him into the nearest wall glaring coldly and keeping the pain off her face as much as she could. "I was preoccupied following your orders," she hissed. "Next time, do it yourself."

He leaned his head back and smirked, slipping his arm around her waist and pulling her flush against him. She buried her face in his neck, biting her lip to keep the pained sounds from escaping. She felt his mouth brush along the column of her neck and shivered against him. "He messed you up real good, didn't he?" he murmured softly, placing a kiss beneath her ear and pulling her earlobe into his mouth. She groaned and shoved at his chest, just like him to say something like that. "Relax, I like seeing you all pissed off and in pain, it makes me feel…"

"In control?" she finished for him. "Well just so you know, this won't happen again, I don't like seeing my own blood."

She pushed away and shoved her hands back into her sleeves before stalking in the direction she had been going. "Rei!" he called.

"I'm not in the mood!" she snapped back.

"That would be a first."

She flipped him off. She wanted to go lay down somewhere and curl into a small ball and pretend that she's never met Zaraki Kenpachi. Every move she made felt like something was tearing up inside, every breath she took felt like her lungs were going to explode. She threw a random door open and studied the familiar room, cursing the memories of a place she has never spent time in, and headed to the futon in the back. She curled up on it and closed her eyes, ignoring the smell of dust and various other things.

She felt Hiro curl up behind her, his hand pressed against her stomach and the warmth of a healing kido spreading through her body. "I apologize." He murmured softly. She huffed but didn't say anything. "I'll get rid of Zaraki if that's what you want." He said and pressed a kiss to her clothed shoulder.

"I don't want him dead. I want them dead."


	9. Chapter 8

**Hiya! I probably won't be posting over Christmas, so MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, not much is going on it, but Byakuya and Hitsugaya to talk...though not about Rukia really...anyway, Enjoy! **

**P.S - I'm also looking for a Beta if anyone is interested, mostly for grammar.**

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Hitsugaya sat quietly on Matsumoto's bright pink pillow.

He was staring at Zaraki's empty spot, trying to figure out exactly when he had created his _Other_. Where exactly the man had gone, was beyond him. He had laughed boisterously the moment Omae had finished speaking, told them they were a bunch of pansies and had stalked out of the room with the impressive billowing of his haori and Yachiru on his shoulder. Omae had said something about those two being the only ones who would probably never have an _Other._

He couldn't think of a single reason why he would have one, or more accurately, when the bastard was created. Yes, he had felt lonely and worthless and pathetic before, but he had felt like that many times. He was the genius prodigy of Soul Society. He's managed what no on else has managed before. He was feared for whom he was, for what he could do and for what everyone thinks he can do. No one in Rukongai would've approached him for the simple reason that his hair was too white, his eyes were too hard and his personality too 'cool'. During his academy years he had been the youngest. There no one dared mess with him because he was the genius prodigy from Rukongai who was mastering everything faster than they've been pretending to. He was too young and too good at everything for them to bother befriending him. As an unseated shinigami – which hadn't lasted long – he had been feared for his prowess. He was too strong to be unseated. As a seated shinigami the unseated officers nearly wet their pants and the recruits whimpered at the mere sight of him.

It was only after he became a taichou that things evened out. He wished Matsumoto would fear him and she didn't. He didn't have to work with the unseated or seated officers or the recruits if he didn't find it absolutely necessary. He was amongst people who were as strong, if not stronger than him and who could handle his maturing power better than he had thought. He had gunned for the position of taichou because he had known it would be where he would belong. He had known it was where he would find peace. Sure the workload was hell and Matsumoto not doing her part was frustrating, but he wouldn't give it up for anything.

Besides Rukia, maybe, not to insult her, but the moment he sets foot in Rukongai it was going to be hell all over again.

He's had plenty of time in the last hundred and twenty years to create an _Other_, but there was no way he could pinpoint exactly how old the bastard was. Not unless he asked Rukia and counted five decades up from that. And from the look on her face he was not broaching the topic; he figured it hurt. And from that look alone he was glad he couldn't figure it out. Genius or not, pain's never been something he enjoyed. He was anything but a masochist. He would leave that to Kurosaki's blue haired little friend who liked being chased and crying at the same time.

He took a deep breath and raised his head anyway. Omae was still sitting here, coating his fingers with his cookies and chocolate and sucking it off or stuffing a cookie in his mouth. Hitsugaya was starting to wish that Rukia's little _Other_ were more like him. That way there would've been less pain in his body after every meeting with them. He still had to go and see Inoue to fix whatever broken or bruised insides he had. "Rukia," he said slowly.

Her head snapped up and she looked at him and for a moment, just a single moment he thought she was going to cry. "What?" she questioned softly, softer than she normally would have.

"Exactly…when…how…" he sighed. This was obviously upsetting her and him asking about it wasn't really helping.

"Exactly eighty years ago." She whispered softly. "Right after my adoption into the Kuchiki clan. It was the only time I could've possibly created an _Other_."

There was a thick suffocating silence. The silence was broken by the echoing crack of flesh against flesh. A moment of stunned silence followed before Rukia tackled Kurosaki to the ground, yelling at him that he had no right to hit Byakuya. Kurosaki threw her off easily, not harshly, and glared at her. "He adopted you!" he sneered. "She exists because he couldn't leave you where you had been happy!"

"I wasn't happy I was content. I'm happy now!" she yelled in response. "If I hadn't been adopted, I probably wouldn't have graduated the academy and I probably wouldn't have been put in the Thirteenth Division. I would probably never have met you or Toshiro or anyone from here. I am happy!" she yelled even louder.

"Then why do we have a sadistic little wench –"

"Don't call Rei that."

"-running around intent on killing you?" he yelled, ignoring Omae's small interruption.

"Because," Omae started before Rukia could, he shoved his bowl to the center of the room. It circled before it stopped and he rose to his feet. "Whatever emotion had been running through her at the time of Rei's creation was resolved somewhere after her ten years of existence." He said calmly as he stretched himself out. He studied Rukia for a moment. He shook his head and headed towards the door of the room. He lifted his hand through the air and stepped over his cookie bowl. "Thank you for letting me out for a couple of hours, Sotaichou-sama, but I'd like to go back now." He stopped at the door and tilted his head to the side. "This isn't my fight and I would like to be gone before Hiro comes to lay waste to all of this."

He disappeared just as the door was harshly kicked open and Zaraki stepped through. Yachiru wasn't squealing; she was staring down at the busty girl in Zaraki's arm. There was blood, too much blood and the smell of it was over powering as he laid her down in front of Isane and Unohana. A moment of shocked silence echoed through the walls of the room.

"I-Inoue?" Kurosaki whispered as he sank to his knees. His eyes wide and mostly uncomprehending as Isane set to work. Hitsugaya could see it already. They weren't going to bring her back, or even be able to drop her into a coma. She was dead.

Rukia's eyes were wide; the look of almost crying was back stronger than ever. Her hands were trembling. Hitsugaya got up slowly and made his way to her. He pulled her into his arms and held her tightly, cringe with every sob that echoed through her body. He didn't have to hear Unohana declare her dead or hear Yachiru's echoing, childlike cries to have known that she was dead. He had known it the minute Zaraki walked in with her.

It was Matsumoto who was clutching at Ichigo, forcing the boy to pay attention to her, trying to numb his mind-blowing rage and holding onto him for all she was worth because she was trying to concentrate on his pain and not hers. It was Renji who was trying to force the kid to concentrate and it was Byakuya who was standing silently over him and Rukia with his hand on Rukia's shoulder.

He hadn't really known the Inoue girl, but she had been important to Rukia. She had been a friend to Rukia and Rukia had risked her life for the girl. This was not how Rukia should've learned she was dead. This was not how she should've died. This was not what should've happened.

He spared a brief second contemplating the thought of why the girl was dead. She was dead because an _Other_ got stronger on negative emotions. And if they could get even stronger than they were now, what was to stop them from invading with no plausible measure of death?

He raised his head and looked at Byakuya. The man merely dropped his arm and nodded his head. Hitsugaya bent his knees slightly and caught Rukia's legs behind her knees and lifted her into his arms before walking out with her, kicking the doors in much the same way Zaraki had. His charge was at least alive though.

His plan had been to take her to the Tenth Division office, it was quiet and no one was there anyway, instead he changed his plan almost immediately. He was just going to take him to an estate he was soon going to have to sell again. Zaraki must've caught the kid. His office had a hole in it and as did the wall separating the Tenth from the Eleventh. The few servants he had, courtesy of Yamamoto sotaichou, opened the door for him, glanced briefly at Rukia before tittering away to do various things. He heard a bath being ran and listened as one headed to the kitchen.

He just silently headed upstairs and laid her on the bed. She curled around a pillow and bit the corner and clenched her eyes shut and her body wracked with every cry. Somewhere, wherever she was, Hitsugaya was hoping this pain she had caused was bothering Rei. And he hoped that it was driving her mad and he hoped that when she came back Rukia would lay waste to her small body, but until then he was just going to sit at the foot of the bed and wait for Rukia to stop crying.

He sat with his back to her, figuring that since he wasn't good at comforting people just letting her cry would work better. His arms were resting on his knees and he was staring at the walls. Eventually her crying evened out, he could still hear her sniffling, but she wasn't sobbing anymore.

There was a faint knock on the door and one of the servants poked their head around the door. "Hitsugaya-sama, her bath's ready." She said lowly, sliding the door open and bowing before him. He wrinkled his nose; this was something he would have to get used to.

Rukia chuckled softly, the sound broken by a hiccup. "Thanks." She muttered.

"My pleasure, Lady Kuchiki." She answered before disappearing.

Hitsugaya shook his head and listened as she got off the bed. She stopped in front of him, her hand held out to him. He merely stared at the appendage before raising his eyes to her. What did she want? "Come with me." She murmured softly and pulled him. "I don't want to…" she didn't say anything else as he got up and followed her to the bathroom.

He waited outside until she was done getting undressed and submerged beneath the water before he went in. She had tied her hair up into a messy bun on her head, tendrils of hair escaping it. The heat of the room had left her face flushed and she was submerged up to her chin beneath the bubble-covered water, poking at a couple rose petals. She smiled at him, looking every part the woman with her red nose and red eyes and small fragile look. "You can get in if you want." She said softly.

He shook his head. "No. I don't think I'll keep my hands to myself if I get in there with you." He said and sat down with his back against the tub's wall. He smiled faintly when she wrapped her wet arms around his neck, locking her hands together over his chest. She rested her chin on his shoulders and they sat silently for a moment, just like that, reveling in each other's presence.

She started talking. He figured it was her mechanism against what had happened. She talked about getting to know Orihime, about her foods and her weird little quirks and her strange drawings and various other things. She talked about how they had spent days together training, getting stronger before the Arrancar battle, about how Orihime had always been optimistic, about how she had always known they would win. She talked about how Orihime always had something nice to say about everyone. About how she had always talked about the Arrancar as if they had been human and had not locked her up. The more she talked, the more he realized that she was crying again.

He wanted to make her forget, he wanted to make her feel better.

He twisted around in her arms and kissed her. He pulled the hair tie out of her and let her hair tumble around her shoulder and over his fingers. She tasted of something sweet and tears. Her grip on his hair was almost painful, but he didn't really mind that too much. He pushed her back gently, keeping their mouths locked together as he climbed fully clothed into the tub. The water was hot, but it was a background thought to the warmth spreading through his body. He pulled her into his lap, leaving soft, open-mouthed butterfly kisses along her jaw and into her neck.

"…Shiro," she whispered.

"I know. I know, not like this." He murmured softly against her skin.

"I'm sorry." She buried her face in his neck and he merely shrugged his shoulders. "I'm horrible, aren't I?" she whispered softly.

"No, you're not. You clearly just have more control over you hormones than I do." He grinned and kissed her cheek softly. "I don't mind just sitting here either, I'm fine."

They sat silently together until the water turned cold and the bubbles started to fade and even then they just sat quietly, listening to each other's breathing. It was only when one of the servants knocked on the door and said that dinner was ready and that Kuchiki taichou would be joining them that they got out. "I'll finish up here, you entertain Niisama." She murmured softly before kissing him.

"Stop kissing me or he can entertain himself." He mumbled, she shoved him out of the bath and he huffed as he left.

He dried off and dressed and headed downstairs to face the music. He wasn't sure if the Kuchiki had known about his relationship with Rukia – with the man it was impossible to tell, he was always cold as ice and Hitsugaya was the one wielding the ice type zanpakuto – the man had never shown any signs that he did. Granted Kurosaki had never shown obvious signs around people that he knew either, but the kid knew.

Byakuya was sitting in his living room, suddenly looking old and tired. The kenseikan had been taken from his hair and his fingers were massaging at his scalp. "You look like an old man, Kuchiki."

The nobleman raised his head and studied him for before sighing softly and shrugging. "It would seem so." He muttered tonelessly. "How is Rukia?"

"She's holding up." Hitsugaya said and sat down, dropping his feet onto his coffee table and ignoring the scowl his servants sent him. "And Kurosaki?" he asked slowly.

"He broke down. Matsumoto fukutaichou sedated him through the use of sticking the pill in her mouth and forcing it down his. He's currently unconscious." Byakuya said as he accepted the tea gracefully. "I don't think the girl is the cause for his bout of insanity, but it might've been the trigger."

Hitsugaya frowned. "How bad?" he murmured lowly, listening for Rukia. "How badly did he crack?"

Byakuya was silent for a moment; he sat motionless before pulling the sleeve of his shihakusho back. "Badly." He muttered, staring at the harsh red staining the white bandages. "Unohana is keeping him under sedation until his father can come here. They're making arrangements for getting Urahara to come in as well, but we'll be facing those two before it happens." He chuckled lowly. "Give it a couple of centuries and we'll be facing the new sotaichou." He muttered sound less than amused.

"Don't tell me he attacked the old man."

"Probably wouldn't have if Yamamoto sotaichou hadn't thought it would be a wonderful moment to inform the kid of what is killing him." Hitsugaya noted the uncharacteristic annoyance in the man's voice. Along with the uncharacteristic talkativeness the man was sporting. He had to be tired as hell if he was bothering with answering questions.

"So he knows." Hitsugaya tilted his head back and looked at Rukia. Her eyes were wide, still red, and she was wringing her hands together. "Does he…is he…" she trailed off, not sure what she wanted to ask or how.

"He didn't say anything about you. Matsumoto fukutaichou didn't exactly give him chance." He muttered. "Neither did Unohana, but you can talk to him when he wakes up, talking resolves issues easier."

Rukia sat down. They sat in silence until a servant showed up, inquiring about when they will be having dinner. Hitsugaya gave her and the rest of them the night off and spared a moment contemplating the fact that neither Byakuya nor Rukia has broached the subject of their relationship yet. He was literally waiting with baited breath for that topic to be brought up. There were many things that Hitsugaya Toshiro would face willingly; he just never thought he'd have to take anyone up seriously if they told him Kuchiki Byakuya would be discussing boundaries with him about his sister.

But neither said anything, it was like they were having a silent conversation and somehow he was allowed to be present, but he wasn't allowed to hear it. He was sure that if he left they wouldn't even notice he was gone, but he remained. Because eventually someone had to say something, they couldn't leave him in the dark forever. And besides, he was being the hospitable one, eventually they would have to be gracious guests and inform him of what is going on.

Not that he was claiming Kuchiki Byakuya had to do anything he didn't want.

Finally the man turned to him.

"I approve."


	10. Chapter 9

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**I like this chapter. I feel like I actually got someone in character because we all know that Ichigo blames himself whenever something happens. Anyway, do Enjoy. Oh, and also, this chapter is not as random as it seems. It supposed to be here. **

**Enjoy!**

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Ichigo sat motionless in the Fourth Division bed.

According to Matsumoto, who had been around when he woke up, he should've been out for the rest of the day. Apparently his Hollow hadn't enjoyed the idea of him being knocked out for a period longer than two hours because of some drug. He figured that was a good thing. At least he'll never get completely influenced by a recreational drug that could cause him damage.

He shook his head and threw the covers off him. He remembered attacking Kenpachi. Yelling at him, saying it was his fault. He remembered Kenpachi just standing there, as if he wasn't going to fight back, he remembered Byakuya glaring at him and he remembered swinging his sword at the Kuchiki prince. And he remembered the Sotaichou yammering about his body shutting down on him because of his powers and he remembered attacking the Old man and he remembered Matsumoto kissing him and Unohana sticking something in him and then just falling unconscious.

He wasn't sure exactly why he'd snapped. He honestly couldn't say why. He had known why he was dying. He felt insulted that they would think he didn't know. Did they honestly expect his dad to leave him in dark? Did they honestly think he wouldn't have figured it out even on his own? He'd figured it out right after he needed his first blood transfusion six months ago. It annoyed him that there was nothing he could do about it. It angered him that he couldn't walk five steps before he was gasping for breath when he knew he was healthy.

He sighed softly and threw the blankets off himself and slipped out of the window. In return for training her, Hinamori had taught him kido. Various, powerful and in some cases forbidden kido and hiding himself were the easiest of the things she had taught him. He headed towards the Kuchiki estate and silently slipped through the halls of the manor and towards where the private Spirit Gate of the Kuchiki house was held. It was unguarded, which was odd, so he easily slipped through it and headed to the Human world.

He had to tell Ishida.

It was his duty to tell Ishida that his girlfriend was dead. It was his duty because he couldn't protect her. He should've been there and he should've protected her and it had been his fault that she had died, so he was going to tell Ishida that his girlfriend was dead because of him and that he was utterly sorry for letting it happen. The Spirit Gate opened above Urahara's shop and he dropped onto to the roof and disappeared over a greater distance away with a couple of shunpo before he appeared at his house. He slipped through the window and took the substitute badge to force Kon out of his body. He caught the pill and stared motionless at his body for a moment. Except for the fact that right now he wasn't breathing, his face was pallid and his hair was matted to his head with sweat and his arm was covered in various bruise like fingers from where Ryuuken and Goat Chin had probably been trying to help him take a bath and his hands were covered in bandages again and there was a bleeding wound over the inside of his elbow where he had gotten his last blood transfusion. He wished the whole damn thing would just end and be done with.

He slipped into his body, a painful cough wracked his body the moment his eyes snapped open. He clenched his mouth shut, listening intently if anyone was coming up. No one was. He hadn't been loud enough to be noticed. He threw the covers back, his breathing becoming slightly harsher from the quick movement and stuffed the Modified Soul into its body. "Ichigo!" Kon blinked at him a couple of times. "Oi, you're not allowed to leave bed!"

He ignored him and struggled up. He had to stop for a moment, pressed his hand against his desk to keep up and steady him self and just breathe. But he moved forward, slowly, but he was moving. At the door he was out of breath, taking deep gasping breath of air into his lungs, it felt like his lungs were going to shrivel and die in his chest. He forced his door open, ignoring the twittering teddy bear and struggled onward. He could hear voices. His father and Karin were arguing again, Yuzu trying to placate both. Ryuuken – who was his attending physician – was arguing with Ishida – who was practically living with them for some unknown reason – about something and Chad was trying to placate them. Tatsuki was making dinner – she didn't care about living with anyone, she was just there.

He was hanging off the banister by the time he hit the second stair. Kon was pressing uselessly against his legs, as if trying to keep him up. He finally regained his breathing and stepped over Kon, making it down the stairs towards the kitchen before his breath ran out again. He could feel sweat covering his whole body, he could feel pain echoing through his system and he could just imagine what sort of internal bleeding he was sporting, but he didn't care. He sank down in front of Ishida and bowed his head, pressing both hands against the ground and holding himself up with the help of Kon pressing against his chest. Not that the stuffed animal was doing much.

There was utter silence around him. Only the television from which some girl was sobbing something and the sound of the soup boiling could be heard.

"Kurosaki?" the youngest Ishida finally broke the silence. "What the hell are you doing…?"

"She's dead." He whispered. "I should've protected her and I didn't." He continued; he could feel his eyes burning again. How the hell could he have been so pathetic as to let Orihime run around in a dangerous situation on her own? How could he have let her die? "I'm sorry that I didn't protect Inoue." He whispered, his arms finally just giving up and he slipped forward, his head pressing against the ground. He crushed Kon to his chest, the stupid stuffed animal serving as more comfort than he had ever thought was possible and he cried. He cried like a little kid for everything that made sense and didn't make sense and for being unable to do anything about saving himself and always feeling guilty about saving others and about not saving Orihime.

He felt someone's hand on his head and wasn't surprised when his dad pulled him into his arms and he just continued to bawl like a little kid. Ishida hadn't said anything yet and Tatsuki and Chad were so damn quiet and he could hear Yuzu sniffling, even as a fifteen year old she managed to stay as innocently sweet as she had been when she had been ten. "It's alright son." He heard his dad say. "It's ok."

He felt the spirit pressure minutes later, but didn't move. He heard the knock on the door and he heard one of his sisters go to open the door and then he realized that he knew who it was. Toshiro and Rukia were standing in the kitchen door and for a moment he felt like an idiot, but he couldn't make himself stop crying. And it was wearing his body out faster than he had thought it would. He felt the darkness echo around him and with a last mumbled 'sorry', he dropped into the darkness. Allowing sleep to over take his form.

He didn't dream about anything. He was in his inner world, with Zangetsu and his Hollow, but neither said much – which was strange for Shirogaki – and it had been raining.

Eventually he woke up. It took him a moment to realize that he was curled into the smallest ball his body would allow him with Kon still clutched to his chest. The stuffed animal was probably the reason the television was on low. He could hear the voices from the kitchen, which was right beside the living room anyway, but he couldn't hear the voices from the television.

"They're cute like that." He heard Rukia say.

"Nee-san!" Kon hissed lowly, too low for her to hear.

"Cute? Kuchiki do you realize what you are saying?" he almost smiled at the jealousy in Toshiro's voice.

He could almost see Rukia smiling, that evil grin she could sport when she knew she was saying something that would piss someone off. "Yeah, I mean just look at him. He's adorable all curled up. It's so cute, I could just eat him up."

"Kuchiki, the only thing you will be eating is your food." Toshiro hissed.

She laughed softly. "Relax." She muttered softly. "Besides, Matsumoto would try to kill me if I tried to eat him up. She's reserving that right for herself."

There was a small pause. He realized they were waiting for something. Probably someone more than something, but it was the thought that counted. Kon shifted in his arms and he loosened his grip. The stuffed animal turned to look at him. For a moment they just looked at each other. If anyone had told him that he would become friends with Kon, he'd have laughed, shoved his foot into their face and walked off. But since he was mostly confined to his room and only had Kon for company, the stuffed bear became something akin to a brother to him. He would do anything for him, just like he would do anything for Yuzu and Karin. The bear said nothing, just returned to his shows and ignored everything else.

He hoped they had gotten past the part where they had talked about Orihime, he didn't want to hear that right now. Or see any of them. He felt like an idiot. He wondered if a nervous break down made one feel idiotic on a constant basis. He sighed and shook his head. He wondered if it was possible for him to get an _Other_, after all, he already had an insane bastard living in his head. What were the chances of another one?

When the pause stretched out even longer he sighed, yawned and carefully pushed himself into sitting position. There was a moment of utter silence and then Yuzu was standing in front of him, staring at him worriedly. "Onii-chan?" she asked softly. "Are you alright, any pain? Head aches?"

He smiled at her and ruffled her hair. She never did let it grow out. "I'm fine, Yuzu." He said as he set Kon aside.

"Don't get up, Kurosaki."

"Don't tell me what to do." He smirked when he heard the white haired taichou huff indignantly. "Figured anything out?" he asked slowly.

She's grinning, he could hear it in her voice. "Not really. They're being quiet and you haven't been gone that long and I'm sorry." She said it all in one breath. So quickly he almost didn't catch it. "I should've been the one to tell you and you shouldn't have had to hear…"

"I knew."

The result of his interruption is a tense silence that makes the people in the kitchen scoot around on their chairs. Yuzu was sitting on the table in front of him, she was looking at them and for the first time in his life he was surprised by the pure obliterating anger burning behind her eyes.

"You deserve it." She said vindictively. Ichigo blinked in surprise. "You deserve feeling guilty and pained and hurt." She continued softly. "You deserve feeling like that because that is nothing compared to what Ichi-nii's going through right now."

"Yuzu," he murmured.

She shook her head. "No. I want to say this." He could see tears collecting in her eyes and figured that it was best she got it out now. "Onii-chan has done a million and one things for you and never once did you think it would be a good idea to tell him. Maybe that is what's wrong with you people. You think that if you remain quiet and don't say anything the problem will go away, but clearly that doesn't happen. You're Aizen problem didn't go away, your Bount problem didn't go away even though you pretended for centuries they didn't exist; your Lurichiyo problem didn't go away because the Noble families can't be questioned. You pretend a problem will go away if you don't think about it, but that's not how it works!" he knew it was a bad idea telling her everything. Karin figured it out by herself, but Yuzu had been adamant when she realized there was something everyone else knew that she didn't.

She huffed and sat down the coffee table again. "Well I said what I wanted to. Now maybe Soul Society can resolve its problems easier."

He smiled. "That you did."

"Ichigo," he turned his head and faced Rukia, she was grinning, "I really am sorry."

"I forgave you a long time ago."


	11. Chapter 10

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**I forgot to mention. The Kido that Rei uses, they exist. I didn't create them. I got 'em courtesy of Wikipedia. Hmm, I guess that's basically it. Another Zaraki/Rei face off in this, but there's not much of a fight. The next chapter has a match off between Rukia/Rei. So I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! **

**I don't own anything - I always forget to say this.**

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Rukia took a deep breath.

Rei and Hiro had been so kind as to send them a little note on when and where they would be arriving to commence their battle with her and Hitsugaya. They had also warned them of a little surprise. It had been exactly a month and a half since Orihime's death.

It had been difficult to explain how she died to those who didn't know about Soul Society, but they had managed to hold a funeral for her as well. The majority of Soul Society had been present. Less than two weeks later, Ichigo's body shut down completely. His heart stopped beating, unfortunately Yuzu was the one who had found him. It had taken them ages to calm her down enough to explain that Ichigo would visit, whether he was allowed to or not. They had used the remaining time to train. Rukia wasn't sure if they had gotten stronger or not, but she did know that if those two thought they were getting them down, they were mistaken.

She had long ago resolved the issues she had felt with the Kuchiki house. She had resolved the guilt she had felt over ignoring Renji. She had gotten over the guilt she had felt for Kaien-dono's death. And Ichigo had made her resolve the issue of his illness. Even Yuzu had forgiven her soon after her little out burst and Kurosaki-san had said that if Ichigo didn't feel any anger towards her, then neither did he.

Now they stood before the Western Gate of Soul Society, waiting for some sign that Rei and Hiro was actually on the other side. Yamamoto sotaichou had told them to do as they thought well. She often wondered why he didn't bother with entering battle half as much as he could have. She was pretty sure nothing would get too out of hand if he were around. Ichigo stood beside Hitsugaya, right in his place as the Ninth Division's newly appointed taichou. He had taken to the Ninth Division tradition and wore the shihakusho without the sleeves. And would be the first taichou not to take any of the tests, it was sort of funny that they all approved before he could even bother taking any of the tests. Not that he would've been able to take the trial by combat test anyway.

There were no officers beneath fifth seat in the assembly. It wasn't hard to figure out that those two would annihilate anyone beneath fukutaichou rank. The fukutaichou stood in a perfectly neat line before their taichou, readying themselves for the first launch of attacks against Hiro and Rei. The other ranked officers were standing behind the taichou. The taichou would step in if it looked like chaos was raining down on them. After all, Hiro had a point. What commander would allow his best fighter to die?

She startled when the Western Gate suddenly crashed to the ground in great plumes of dust and Jidanbo skidded into view before them. The plumes of dust drifted away and she wasn't too surprised to see Rei standing on the fallen into gate, in fact she wasn't surprised at all. Hiro didn't seem like the type to get his hands dirty if there wasn't something in it for him. She reached for the zanpakuto at her side, but didn't draw, Hitsugaya had been given permission to lead this operation and until he said draw and attack, she would remain stationary.

Rei flips her white hair over her shoulder, the ponytail swayed behind her head as she leaned forward and waved cheerily at them. She pressed her fingers to her mouth and blew the kiss to them before swinging around, wiggling her fingers and them, and trotted out behind the wall again. "Don't move." Hitsugaya's words filtered into the air behind them.

Her heart was hammering.

The pause was getting on her nerves, causing her hands to shake and fear to crawl into her gut. Why weren't they attacking? What was the point behind making an appearance and then disappearing? She almost faced palmed herself for that question. She was feeling the answer and from the looks of it, she wasn't the only one that was feeling it. She could see Hinamori shifting uncomfortably down the line. Kira not far off and Isane also seemed less comfortable than usual. Sasakibe fukutaichou had been kept from the fight by Yamamoto sotaichou, she owed it up to the fact that they were both old. Renji was pretending that this wasn't getting to him, but she could see the sweat running down the side of his head. Ikkaku and Yumichika, the only seated officers in the front lines, had replaced Yachiru and while neither was showing their discomfort, they couldn't be any less comfortable than the rest of them were.

Everyone here knew that no matter how many swords went against those two, there were really only two swords that could hurt them.

Rukia closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. She opened them again and her eyes widened. Standing in the Gate, with Rei and Hiro in the lead, was an army of Rukongai citizens. There was a look to the eyes of the citizens that said they had no idea of exactly where they were or what they were doing.

"Toshiro, tell me something." She heard the annoyed hiss from the male in question and tried to hide her smile. "What's the first thing a commander should know?"

"How to go fuck himself," Hitsugaya responded evenly.

There was a moment's pause in which Rukia liked to think Hitsugaya had stunned the bastard. Instead of acting stunned, he laughed. "I was not thinking along the lines of carnal pleasure, Toshiro, but I assume that is something a commander must know." The amused grin remained on his face, the deepening darkness of his eyes the only sign of any annoyance. "No, what I was talking about was the…more war related things a commander should know. Would you like me to inform you?" he paused for a moment, as if waiting for an answer he wasn't going to receive. "No need to reply, I'll answer anyway." He raised his hand. "A commander should know that the pawns die first." He snapped his fingers and the citizens began their mindless attack.

"Shit," they steeled themselves.

There was a lot of bashing and a lot of useless defending. The majority of his pawns didn't have much skill in battle tactics. But it was obvious he hadn't brought them along because of skill. They were all dead to the world in some sense. It wasn't hard to knock them out, but by the time they were done with the citizens, they were breathing slightly harder and the first vestiges of fatigue were crawling into their bones. The field laid scattered with knocked out citizens, some of them were bleeding and some of them looked dead, but no one would question the Eleventh Division's prowess at laying waste to things.

Hiro was checking his nails and Rei was looking bored at the end of it. Neither had bothered helping their soldiers out and Rukia felt a deep anger at them for it. They had wanted these innocent people to die. They hadn't cared about whether or not they had family or friends or people who cared about them. They had just seen people worth dying for whatever cause they were shouting about. He raised his head and tilted it to the side, studying the unconscious, but mostly alive citizens before him and shook his head.

"Toshiro, you don't seem to understand what I'm saying." He said with another shake of his head. "Maybe Kurotsuchi taichou will understand. But a pawn that cannot protect its king and queen is useless. Rei," he murmured the single name as if it pained him to order her, whatever she was about to do now.

She straightened up and raised her hand, settled the other one over her wrist. "Hado, Ninety-one, Senju Koten Taiho!" Rukia's eyes widened as the pink spears of light flashed through the air and braced herself against the explosion laying waste to the field where the citizens had been laid out. She wasn't sure who moved Jidanbo; she suspected it was Ichigo, but she was glad as the rush of warm air washed over them along with dust and debris.

As the dust settled, with them now further away than they had been, Rukia stared. She could only stare at the mess the girl had caused. There was a crater size hole where the citizens of Rukongai had been, but not one single human body left. No man or woman of boy child they had used in their plan was left standing.

"How does Kurotsuchi taichou put it? 'The bomb shouldn't come back?' I think that is appropriate for this situation. Just change it to, the pawn shouldn't come back." Hiro said calmly as he waved dust away from himself. "Well, now I truly only have my best soldier left. Didn't think it would go this quickly."

Rei trotted forward, closer to them and grinned cheerily. The sick amusement dropped off her face the moment Zaraki stepped forward. "Miss me, Princess?" he asked smirking at her. Rukia watched in shock as the girl forced herself to remain standing. It was clear she wanted to do anything but fight Zaraki.

"Not really, big brutes like yourself don't interest me. I go more for the type of guy that can hold me, not crush me." She spat at him, shifting her body. "I was sort of hoping to never see your ugly mug again, but I guess that honor doesn't fall on me." There was a moment's pause before a sadistic smirk fell over her face. "And don't get me wrong, the title Princess sounds really cool, but how is your princess? Dead I hope?"

Anger flashed through Rukia, but she remained stationary. Hitsugaya would give his order and from what she's seen just now, this kid was scared of Zaraki.

"Just kill him, Rei."

There was a huff from her and a few muttered words and boisterous laughter from Zaraki, but she ignored it and shifted her body into a fighting stance. Her fingers curled over the top of her palm and she braced the other against her hip with her wrist up. "Ya queen said that if you think it's that easy you should do it."

Hiro looked mildly affronted and half amused. Rei merely sprinted forward, vaulted herself into the air and twisted her body in a circle and slammed her foot in the direction of Zaraki's face. It was obvious that she liked that attack, but Zaraki merely brought his arm up and her foot landed against his muscled arm. A second later his hand wrapped around her ankle and a curse flew into the air as he swung her down and slammed her into the ground harshly. Rukia glanced up and smirked at the clear surprise on Hiro's face. It was obvious she had told him that she had faced Zaraki before and he had obviously not believed the fact that she got her ass handed to her.

He stood up, rising to his full height with empty hands. Rukia trained her eyes on the dust before him, waiting for it to clear. Her eyes widened in shock and amusement as the girl stood on all fours, coughing for all she was worth at his feet. Zaraki was frowning at her. "The first time I fought you I figured you were just tired from having to fight Hitsugaya." He said thoughtfully. "I figured the little wimp gave you a work out or something, but that was honestly all you got?"

She spat blood from her mouth and pushed her self up. It was clear that she was ignoring him. Hiro was frowning, more than mildly annoyed and clearly unhappy. "Rei," he said, his tone speaking of a clam his eyes were betraying to be fury, "'preoccupied' didn't mean 'unable'!" he sneered.

She spun around and pointed at him. "I told you before," she shouted, "you want him dead so badly, do it your fucking self!" she screamed angrily.

Hiro frowned at her and rolled his eyes. "He's a shinigami." He snapped. "Shinigami are easy to kill. Shove your hand through his gut." Rukia frowned at them. They were acting pretty much the very same way she and Hitsugaya had acted on their first mission alone together. Mid battle they had started yelling at each other about the proper way to infiltrate a building with more than sixty trained rebels in it.

"Obviously it is not…"

Zaraki's hand landed on her shoulder and she tilted her head back to look at him. A moment later she was flying over their heads into a nearby building. The resounding curse echoed around them and Zaraki laughed. "Getting distracted in a fight's not right."

Hiro crossed his arms and shifted on his feet for a moment before sighing in annoyance. "Very well, we'll just take Zaraki out quickly." He grouched. He reached behind him and flipped the sword over, shoving it hilt deep into the ground. "Reduce to frozen fields, Mizumaru!" he called out. There was a resounding sound of something like ice cracking and then Zaraki was encased in the thickest wall of pure ice. It surrounded him in a wide, perfect nine foot circle of solid ice. "Now see there Rei, that wasn't so hard." He said in a patronizingly sweet tone as he pulled the zanpakuto from the ground.

The girl reappeared, glaring harshly at her taichou. "You know, if I didn't like this plan so much, I'll let you suffer on your own."

"You love me far too much to let me suffer." He responded smirking at her.

"Keep telling yourself that." She spat. She stalked up to the ice circle and kicked it. "I hope you die in there you son of a bitch!" she sneered and crossed her arms childishly. She gazed at Zaraki's frozen form for a moment longer before huffing and turning her blue eyes on Rukia. The annoyed look slowly dropped off her face as she smiled that sickeningly sweet smile.

She took a deep breath and Rukia glanced briefly at Hitsugaya and decided that she would ignore whatever command he gave now. This was her fight and she would fight it alone. She didn't need anyone's help and she didn't want anyone's help. This girl killed her friend, ripped another one apart, destroyed her boyfriend's division, shoved her hand through his gut, kicked his ass and had the audacity to be annoyed when Zaraki taichou kicked her ass.

She couldn't care why this kid existed. She couldn't care that Omae – a really good, sweet kid – loved her like a big sister. She couldn't care that it was this girl that had beamed up at her, presenting her with a gift she would've taken had it not felt like she would be scolded for it.

She was going to kill this girl.

And she was going to enjoy it.

Rukia wasn't sure what she was thinking, or anyone else for that matter, she wasn't sure it would matter either. She did know that this girl wasn't going to play by the rules, she was going to fight dirty and she wouldn't care whether Rukia wanted her to play nice. Rukia, for all it was worth, wanted her to fight dirty, wanted her to break the rules and wanted her to give her even more reason to kill the brat.

Rukia smiled at her and stepped forward, ignoring the commands of her boyfriend, friend and taichou. She drew Sode no Shirayuki and held the blade in both hands as she shifted her body right. The girl tilted her head to the side, frowning slightly as if she wasn't sure what Rukia was doing or what she was trying to prove. Rukia just held the hilt of her zanpakuto tightly, took a deep breath and lowered the unreleased blade a bit.

This girl was her insecurities. And she was pretty sure that even if she did defeat her, even if she destroyed her, she would still have insecurities, but this girl was the things about her that she had always feared. She was the things Rukia had wanted to destroy and wanted to hate and wanted to leave behind but never could, in human form. This girl was the very things about her past that she had long forgotten; the things that weren't important anymore and she would defeat her just to prove that.

She was the things that made Rukia feel like she was worthless, pathetic and alone when she wasn't. And if she didn't defeat those insecurities within herself, then she would never defeat this girl and just standing up to her meant more than anyone else would really bother with. And Rei knew it. She knew that this moment, this moment where Rukia was pointing her blade against her, was monumental. Rei knew just as well as Rukia did that the outcome of this fight rested with Rukia and Rei knew just as well as Rukia did that either of them could win. It wasn't a given that Rukia would win and it wasn't a given that Rei would win and against each other there was nothing that could hold them back. They could go all out because destroying the other meant they got to live.

Rukia remained smiling, surprised by her own confidence in her skills, surprised by the fact that she had no certainty of how this fight would end. She was surprised by how she accepted that so easily, how she didn't care. She was not a member of the Eleventh Division, but this was a fight she was going to enjoy. This fight, this would be the fight that defined her.

Ichigo got to fight his Hollow. She got to fight her Other.

And if it ended with her dying, then it just meant she never stood a chance against her own insecurities. It just meant that all those years ago, when the Kuchiki clan looked at her like she was worthless, they had been right.

"Hitsugaya taichou and I are going to have so much fun killing you and Hiro-kun."


	12. Chapter 11

**Thanks for the reviews guys, you really are awesome. **

**Anyway, I sort of see Rukia as the type to allow her opponent to kick her ass before she fought them. To give herself some time to figure a few things out. I sort of liked this chapter, though I don't know how wonderful the fighting scenes are. Do enjoy though!**

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"Hitsugaya taichou and I are going to have so much fun killing you and Hiro-kun."

Rei stared at the Kuchiki princess for a second before smiling half amused. She was serious. The little Kuchiki princess was actually serious. There was no anger, no hatred, no pain, just pure, uncontrolled eagerness for this fight. She wanted to fight like a member of Eleventh Division. Rei tilted her head to the sky for a moment before glancing at Hiro, he was frowning in displeasure, an obvious sign that he didn't approve of whatever Rukia wanted to do.

"Né, Rukia-chan, I did say I'll play with you, right?" she asked in response.

Her reasons for fighting Rukia weren't as…pure as Rukia's were. Her reasons were cold, dark and filled with hatred. She wanted to kill Rukia for the simplicity that she exists. If Rukia didn't exist, Rei's mind wouldn't be plagued with insecurities she would never feel. She hated Rukia. She always has and always will. She was created from everything that made Rukia weak, her strength came from everything that made Rukia weak and she hated Rukia for it. She didn't care about power like Hiro. She only wanted Rukia to die. She didn't want to feel the sickening, gut wrenching, power coursing through her body because of the weakness of some pathetic Kuchiki princess. She wanted to do what Kuchiki Rukia had never allowed her to do.

She wanted to die.

But she wasn't going to give Rukia the satisfaction of just standing around and letting herself be speared.

"You promised." Rukia responded.

Rei nodded her head slowly. "I did." She said slowly. "Né, Rukia-chan," she murmured softly as she ignored Hiro's growl for her to stand down completely. She shifted her body into a familiar fighting stance and smiled when the familiar weight of her zanpakuto settled at the small of her back. "Do you remember the first time we met?" she asked slowly.

The girl looked momentarily surprised. "I remember."

"You should've killed me back then."

She dissolved into the air and slammed both hands into Rukia's chest upon reappearing. She smirked when the girl yelped and went flying. She dissolved again and raised her leg high as she reappeared behind Rukia and brought her heel down on Rukia's head, sending the girl into the ground. It wasn't going to last long at this rate. She tilted her head to the side, raising her hand and sending a random kido blast in the direction of the four taichou trying to get to Rukia. She glared down at the girl, nudging her effortlessly with her food. Rukia made a soft whimpering sound in the back of her throat. Rei slammed her foot down on Rukia's chest, between her breasts and put even more pressure on the meager attack. "Don't waste my time. You wanted this fight." She said calmly. "Think, Kuchiki. You can sense me." She lifted the girl with her foot, vaulted her into the air and sent her into Hiro's Ice Vault. She frowned and shoved her hands into her sleeves. This was going to be useless if that was all she was worth.

Rukia used her sword to pick herself up with. Again she pointed the thing at Rei, the younger of the two scowled at her and disappeared, not even bothering to remove her hands as she jumped up high enough, twisted in the air and landed a kick at the side of Rukia's head. She landed on the tips of her toes before settling her whole foot to the ground and watching as Rukia flew through the air and finally landed painfully near Hitsugaya. The latter didn't move; it was clear that he was holding himself back. She wondered if he was worried about having another kido blast sent his way or if he figured it out.

She didn't really care.

She studied the sword that lay uselessly next to her and picked up she flipped it over in her hands and smiled at the half familiar weight. It wasn't much different than her own zanpakuto. In the long run it was useless to her, but the familiarity of it was at least nostalgic. She threw it off to the side. Useless things annoyed her and the further away from Rukia that thing was, the happier she would be. The harder it would be for Rukia to kill her and the more Rukia could experience the pain that had been part of her daily life for years. She wanted to die; she wasn't going to give the girl the means to it easily. That was not how it worked.

She sighed. "Né, Rukia-chan," she mumbled softly, starting to feel annoyed with the bright and bubbly attitude she sported for how long now. "You're starting to piss me off." She glanced at the girl, half amused when the two Eleventh idiots clucking around her stepped back. She slowly made her way to them, watching as they scrambled away. Hitsugaya remained standing, but didn't move to defend Rukia. Rukia was standing on her hands and knees. She crouched down. "I'm not even getting warmed up." She poked the girl's side softly. "When you really want to do this, challenge me again."

She rose to her full height and spun around, walking away from Rukia. She wasn't even half way to the Ice Vault when something slammed into her back and caused her to stumble forward. The tips of her fingers brushed against the white washed street and she pressed her hand flat against it and swung her foot out. She was half surprised when she realized Rukia was blocking the attack aimed for her head. She liked aiming for her opponent's head. Give them a concussion in the first couple of minutes of the fight and the fight is a sure win, you can't fight with stars dancing across your eyes. She flipped her body over and slammed her other foot into Rukia's chest. Rukia stumbled away, the attacks doing less damage than they had done earlier.

She could almost say she was proud.

She pulled her arms from beneath her and allowed herself to go down before she flipped onto her feet. Rukia shook her hands for a moment before twisting her body into a fighting stance. "I've figured out why we can't sense you." She said calmly. "We can, we just don't think it's you." She said smirking. "There is no difference – well there is, slight, but there is – between your spirit force and spirit pressure and mine. That miniscule difference is something you wouldn't really pick up. Your spirit pressure is slightly darker than mine." She tilted her head to the side. "And it would only have been picked up on if you had gone somewhere where we didn't spend our time. Which, considering our ranks, wasn't anywhere in Soul Society. We have to be everywhere."

Rei tilted her head to the side. She wanted to tell them they were slow. For a guy who couldn't sense spirit force or pressure, Zaraki had figured it out right on the first try. She had looked exactly like Rukia when she shoved her fist through Inoue's chest. The first thing Zaraki said was something along the lines of 'found ya princess' and somewhere in there he said he was going to show her the difference between a real soldier and wimp with white hair. She got the impression he didn't like Hitsugaya much there, but she hadn't said much. She had been concentrating too much on not getting her self annihilated.

She shifted her body into a more appropriate stance. If she's figured it out, this was going to be more of a fight than a beating. It was going to be something that wouldn't just fall into Rei's lap. "Rei, this isn't part of the plan." She ignored Hiro and flickered out of existence vaulting herself into the air and smirking in amusement when Rukia blocked the forward kick and the downward vault at the same time. Rukia twisted her body and flashed a kick at Rei's side, she quickly dropped her arms and blocked the attack, flipping away from the older girl and landing in a crouch. Rukia didn't waste time, she used shunpo and twirled in a dance like kick Rei blocked, but it still hurt like hell. The girl was obviously stronger than she had expected. She was starting to think Rukia had been playing her.

She wouldn't really be surprised.

Their attacks were an equal amount of defense and offense. If she wasn't blocking, Rukia was defending. Rukia's attacks had a dance like grace to them, something Rei never experienced before. Her fights had always been fast, hard and graceless. Rei's own attacks flowed like water, the liquid elegance one only got from similarities to their zanpakuto. Rukia was the dance like snow of Shirayuki and Rei the liquid grace of Amekuroi.

They skidded away from each other and she spat blood out of her mouth, the foul taste of it annoying her. She studied herself, she had bruises she didn't have earlier and a cut on her brow where Rukia had slammed her head into the Ice Vault. The girl was actually fighting like an Eleventh brute; she was just doing it ten times more graceful than anyone Rei's ever seen before. She figured it gave the girl a signature. She wouldn't be Shirayuki's wielder if she weren't graceful in the least. It said something about her, exactly what Rei couldn't quite think of, but it said something. Right now she didn't really care; she was having far too much fun to care about this. She raised her hand to her brow and brushed the blood away. She studied the blood and smirked. "You've resolved things with Kurosaki." Her eyes widened. "And with yourself. And with Byakuya. And with whomever else you had shit to resolve. Hisana maybe?" she smiled. "You spent the last month and a half resolving shit, how quaint."

"How would you know?" Rukia asked with an amused lilt to her tone.

Rei stretched her hand out, the spirit force enveloping her hand first. It slowly spread over her body until she grew a bit taller. Her hair became shorter – remained in their ribbon – and a strand of stubborn hair fell between her eyes. Her eyes became slightly wider, the blue turning violet blue and she grew slightly in chest size. She smirked at Rukia as the spirit force finally subsided. She tilted her head to the side, now the one that was amused by the look of pure and utter shock on her face.

"I. Am. You." She said slowly. "I. Know. Everything." She pursed her lips together in a fake smile.

"I know every unresolved issue you have. I know every fear you have. I know it all. Because that is what I am made from." She clenched her hands into fists and relaxed them again; she studied her hands, as if curious by the cuts and bruises that weren't identical to Rukia's. She clenched her hand again and looked up. "You created me as a three year old in the Eightieth District of the Southern region. I didn't know what I was, how I got there or why nobody could hurt me. I just had the image of a sad girl in my head and I just knew she was my answer to whatever the hell I was. I spent a year traveling looking for you. I found you eventually and I thought, 'wow, this is my neesama! This is someone who will protect me from whatever is running through my head', guess I was wrong, huh?" she closed her eyes. "I thought if I could make you happy, if I could just make you smile, the thudding echoes of pain in my head would stop. The ache in my heart that I didn't understand would stop. I thought the fear that I didn't understand would stop. But you just walked away." She tilted her head to the side. "Call me a little kid that feels scorned, but I think I hate you."

She laughed and shook her head. "I stood there like an idiot, I didn't know what I was supposed to do. You left. What the hell was I supposed to do? I met Hiro then. He had a superiority complex and a nasty attitude and he treated me like a kid. I didn't like him, I thought he was an idiot and I figured he couldn't know any more than I could. So with all my four year old might I decided that he could go screw himself and that I could deal with this on my own. That was a joke, I'll tell you now. Not only did Hiro drop me right into Zaraki with a mild warning of 'look after yourself kid' and disappeared, but I got my ass kicked six different ways to Sunday." She brushed her bloodied fingers across her face, half surprised by the tears. "And I hated him for it. By night fall I was crying so loudly I could've wakened the long dead. He asked me if I finally got it. I told him to go screw himself through hiccups and crap, in true Zaraki style. He laughed. I remember him laughing and I remember snapping and I remember fighting him and I remember feeling like I finally reached Sunday after he was done with me. He didn't care that I was four, he didn't care that my system told me I was a princess. He thoroughly kicked my ass and told me that if I was lucky, I would die before I was fourteen. He said he doubted it would happen, but he would hold his fingers crossed and he would take care of me until then, because I was a weak little kid who didn't get anything and that he wasn't heartless enough to hope I lived. I think I might've fallen for him because of that."

She raised her head and looked at Rukia. "When I turned fifteen I told him I wanted you dead." She unclenched her fingers. "And do you want to know what his advice was? What he said I should do?"

Rukia swallowed and shook her head. Rei wondered if she could say something, or if the shock running through her was keeping her silent. She didn't really care.

"He said I should embrace every negative emotion you feel."

She had thought he was an idiot. She spent eleven years trying to ignore it and suddenly the bastard was telling her to embrace it. She had thought there was no way it was going to work. And then she did it.

She huffed. "Suddenly I was supposed to embrace something he told me to ignore. Suddenly he was telling me I should accept emotions he was trying to shield me from for eleven years. Suddenly my best friend, my only friend and the only companion I had, was telling me that if I didn't grow up, that if I didn't accept what was running through my head, he was going to end me for you." She shrugged. "I did the only thing I could, I ran away. I waited until he was asleep and I ran. I spend two years avoiding him. I spend two years hiding as if I was afraid of him. Obviously, he found me. I was right on the brink of finding you. I wanted to beg you to just make it stop. But he found me and gave me an alternative. He said that if I embrace your darkness he would give me a chance to fight you, he would give me a chance to make you feel everything I've felt and double. He would give me a chance to destroy you and let me become you. So I accepted it. I don't care about becoming you, but if you die, my pain goes away. Easy."

She waved her hand and she felt herself shortening and her hair becoming longer. She felt herself returning to normal. Rukia shook her head and shifted her body slightly. Rei followed her example. They stood facing each other, their bodies turned in opposite directions. Rukia's hands were up to protect her face, Rei's at her side, her arms pin straight.

"Don't think I'm going to go easy on you because of a sob story. We all have a past we're not happy with." She said.

Rei smirked. "I'm already going to kill you. Don't try to insult me with taking it easy, I'll make it worse."

Rukia smirked. "Bring it, Princess."

"My line!" she sprinted forward ducking from Rukia's punch and flipping herself back onto her arms and kicking up. Her feet landed against Rukia's stomach and sent her skidding. She dropped down and disappeared and reappeared behind Rukia, she spun herself in a pirouette like twirl and found her foot blocked while a fist raced straight for her face. She blocked attack, but was still sent skidding backwards. She slammed her hands down, using it as leverage against the fast race towards a nearby wall and stopped right in the center of the group of shinigami. She shook her hands, before ducking from another graceful, twisting kick aimed at her head. She blocked a punch, deflecting it before thrusting her own fist forward and hitting Rukia on the shoulder. Rukia slammed her folded together hands in a homerun like hit against her stomach and landed a hard kick against her collard bone.

Rei hissed and grabbed onto Rukia's leg before pulling a Zaraki move and gracelessly slamming her against a nearby wall by her ankle. She rolled her shoulder and tilted her head as she gazed up at her surroundings. Hiro's Ice Vault was cracking. The bastard was actually forcing out spirit force in a frozen state, wonderful. She would like this to be over before he completed it.

"Oi! Up here!"

Her head snapped up and she found a foot slamming against her body just beneath her breast. She grabbed onto the ankle as she was sent flying through the former gate way. They slammed into a building nearby, the occupants of it scrambling out as Rukia slammed a fist against Rei's wrist.

She slammed into the ground and remained unmoving for a couple of second.

This was fun.


	13. Chapter 12

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**Hiya, HAPPY NEW YEARS guys! May all your new years resolutions come true. **

**Ok, I know your probably wondering why this isn't a chapter between Rei and Rukia, but it's supposed to be that way. I'm not confident enough to write a three thousand word battle scene just yet. Anyway, I like the idea of Hitsugaya's unresolved issue being with Hyourinmaru rather than someone human. Why? Because I figured that Hyourinmaru would've chosen him long before he actually 'visited' him and besides, because of Hyourinmaru he nearly killed his Grams. So I sort of like that idea. Anyway Enjoy!**

**I don't own Bleach - I should put up a disclaimer on my profile, I'm less likely to forget this then.**

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"They don't do that very well."

Hitsugaya turned to the dark haired man as he pulled his sword from the ground. He shook his head. Hitsugaya frowned; this was his fight then. No one else was really needed and Zaraki was already frozen, someone would need to take care of that. "Do what?" he finally asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

Hiro tilted his head to the side. "Follow the rules. I say accept, she runs away. I say stand down; she fights. I say do this; she does that. Never follows the rules. Quite annoying," he muttered tonelessly as he settled the blade of his sword on his shoulder. "But I guess they set it in motion, didn't they?"

"You love her." Hitsugaya stated in response. The man tilted his head to the side, as if curious by where this is going. Hitsugaya was sure he wasn't really. He was pretty sure the black haired bastard knew exactly where he was going with this. "So which is it, do you love her like I love Rukia or is she more of a sister to you?"

The man wrinkled his nose. "Hitsugaya-chan, I'm not into incest." He stated calmly. "Why are we talking about this?" the white haired taichou twitched at the bastard's manner of speaking to him.

"I just want to know which reaction I should expect when she dies."

Hitsugaya's eyes widened at the cold feel of Hiro's blade against his throat. "You are overconfident." He said calmly. "If your Rukia kills my Rei, I kill her."

Hitsugaya smirked and reached for the blade on his back. "Then the same goes for me." He spun around and grinned as his blade slammed against Hiro's. "Kurosaki," he said suddenly.

"Kurosaki taichou!" the boy snapped back. Hitsugaya blinked in surprise for a second. "What do you want?"

"Stay out of this."

He heard the boy huff. "Wasn't planning on wasting my time stepping in. For a change, I don't have to do anything. I'm going to do paperwork. Hisagi!" he heard the billowing of Kurosaki's haori and Hisagi's simple 'taichou,' and then he felt the two disappear.

He stared at his Other for a moment before stepping back and flipping the blade over.

He still couldn't figure out exactly when he had created this guy. Obviously he had still been young, he had been very young when he created this guy, but that wasn't going to stop him from kicking his ass.

He disappeared and slammed his blade downward, immediately slashing to the side as Hiro dodged him. He thrust the blade forward, smirking as the male turned his head to the side, and slammed Hyourinmaru down. He used the hilt as leverage to twist his body through the air and slammed his feet into the side of Hiro's head, forcing him into his own attack. A neat crack shot up into the ice, joining the bunch that Rukia and Rei had caused. He spent a brief moment wondering how Rukia was doing. Hiro flashed away and he blocked the attack heading for his neck. Hyourinmaru laid flat against his forearm, Hiro's zanpakuto straining somewhat against the blade. He twisted his fingers around, grasped his hilt firmly and slashed upwards, annoyed by the mere tearing sound and a few hairs falling to the ground.

He was not going to release Hyourinmaru just yet. Not only would it be an insult to him self, but also to Hyourinmaru, this bastard wasn't that strong and whatever worries he had about attacking Rei wasn't present now.

He slashed upwards and to the side, half amused by how fast the bastard was dodging. He found himself comparing Hiro with Rei. Hiro was stronger, that was obvious in the amount of spirit force he was hiding just beneath Hitsugaya's, but she was more fight orientated. She attacked whether there was an opening or not, he was gauging the situation, waiting, observing, allowed easy hits to go throw to see what Hitsugaya could do. He left himself open purposely and Hitsugaya knew that he was giving the bastard ammo against him, but that wasn't really that important, he could fight this guy without worrying about hurting a woman.

Hiro's blocks were becoming more forceful with every attack he delivered, like he was really being put on the edge. The dark haired man skidded away from him and Hitsugaya tilted his head to the side, shifting his legs and keeping Hyourinmaru straight in front of him. Hiro wasn't concentrating. For all his talk about his best soldier, he was pretty concerned about her. He swung his sword around on a black chain, glancing off into the distance as if he was sensing something Hitsugaya wasn't. Hitsugaya frowned, openings he thought was on purpose, was apparently not so on purpose. And if it was, it wasn't for the sake of observation. Hiro shook his head, black tresses flying with the forced wind.

"Oi, Rei!" he shouted suddenly, pointing his sword in the direction and waving his fist at the wall. "I can practically feel you loosing!"

"Shut up!" the girl screamed from somewhere else. "Deal with your own fight, you idiot! He's kicking your ass and he's not even trying." She responded. "Do something about it."

The black haired Other's jaw clenched and his hands tightened around the hilt. Hitsugaya was surprised that he caught the whispered words the man muttered. 'You better come back,' he smirked at the male and sprinted forward, jumped into the air and slashed down, not surprised that the attack caught Hiro by surprise. Hiro's empty hand pressed against the blade, his knees buckled beneath him and he went down hard. Hitsugaya smirked, used the leverage of the two swords against each other and landed both feet against Hiro's chest easily with a downward flip of his body. The man slammed into his attack again, sending a final crack through it as Zaraki's power flashed up. The ice shattered and they had to duck away from chunks of it flying their way.

Hiro stood with his back to Zaraki, looking pretty much like a small boy against the man. He sighed softly and shook his head. "Time to concentrate, hey, Hitsugaya-chan?" he asked sweetly before disappearing. Hitsugaya's eyes widened as his head snapped up and the male came down hard with a simple arcing attack. His blade clanged against Hitsugaya's and the moment it rested there he flickered away. His hands left his blade and he appeared beneath the two swords, his back to Hitsugaya's chest and slammed his elbow back into Hitsugaya's gut. He grasped the hilt of his sword again and slashed down, tearing through the material into Hitsugaya's skin.

"Didn't Aizen Sosuke say that the furthest thing from understanding is admiration? He was a smart man." Hitsugaya's eyes widened as he clutched the hilt of his sword, trying to understand where the hell this conversation was going. "I admit, his ideals were ridiculous, trying to become a god was something no mere shinigami could accomplish, no one can accomplish it. However, I do think he had a good point there."

The man disappeared completely again and Hitsugaya frowned. He blocked the attack as it came from his side again, but barely. Hiro was clearly far more adapt at hiding his power than Rei had been. Hiro tilted his head to the side before smirking and thrusting a punch forward, Hitsugaya deflected his wrist and shot away from the Other. "What does that have to do with this?" he spat.

"I admired you." He said shrugging. "You were a six year old kid who managed to create an Other of my ability. I was shocked; trust me a kid with that much hate in him to create a guy like me was not heard of. You are a real genius in all areas, Hitsugaya-chan." He shook his head. "But I'm not as sentimental as Rei, I'll tell you this story when you're dying, it'll give you something to do."

"You haven't shown that ability you think I created you with." He said and shrugged. His eyes widened seconds later.

"You should pay attention, Hitsugaya-chan." The man said standing right behind him, back to back. "This would be the reason you stabbed Hinamori-chan, this would be the reason that Arrancar almost killed you, this would be the reason Aizen beat you so easily. You don't pay attention." Pain burst across his back as he stumbled forward and before he could even straighten himself he was sent flying face first into Zaraki's back. Zaraki caught him before he could go down. "Wielder of the strongest ice zanpakuto, youngest taichou in the history of Soul Society – Kurosaki doesn't count, you were the first – and creator of the strongest Other in the history of Others. Quite the little genius." The man's hands landed on his shoulder and his face was suddenly right beside Hitsugaya's. "But you don't pay attention."

A kick landed to his back hard, sending him and Zaraki both flying. The latter cursed loudly and shoved him off. "I'll break ya neck!" he snapped up at the man now floating calmly in the air, sword on his shoulder and gazing down at them in curiosity.

"Oi, Hitsugaya-chan, I'll give you what Rei-baby gave Rukia-chan." He said crouched down, his elbow on his knee. "Don't waste my time." He said cheerily. "Unlike her I won't give you time to find your fighting spirit. You want to avenge your grandmother, come at me with everything you've got, Baby boy."

"Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyourinmaru!"

He hit the air, the water curled around his blade and the sky darkened. It froze as he swept the blade down and the red-eyed dragon sped towards Hiro. Hiro raised his hand and flicked it to the side. "Hitsugaya-chan," he muttered half annoyed, "that's not funny." He flicked his hand and the icicles dropped off, crashing against the ground as if the attack had been nothing. "From one ice wielder to another, did you think that would work? I just told you, I'm the strongest Other there is. That would make me the strongest Ice wielding Other in the whole of creation. My zanpakuto is the strongest Other zanpakuto. Don't waste my time."

"Our zanpakuto...have others?" he managed to get out.

Hiro sighed as if annoyed. "Yes. Obviously," he pulled the zanpakuto from his shoulders. "The names change, but the power stays the same, as does the class. Imagine Mizumaru Hyourinmaru's twin brother. We come with the whole set, unlike shinigami." He tilted his head to the side. "Now, shall I show you what true power is?"

He straightened his zanpakuto, shifted his legs and allowed the blade to tilt down. "Mizumaru," he murmured lowly and Hitsugaya remembered him releasing his zanpakuto earlier to freeze Zaraki. Water started to swirl around in a move similar to Hyourinmaru's and dropped off the end, the blade slowly turning to water and falling into the swirling water, creating a huge bubble and eventually a creature resembling a huge tiger crawled forth from the water. Its body froze solidly as it kept moving, when it was done assembling itself into creation it roared echoing, sounding like rushing water and launched forward in an attack.

Hitsugaya was only dimly aware of the fact that Mizumaru's hilt was still in Hiro's hands and that he was controlling the iced tiger.

The tiger jumped up and swiped down at him, he raised his zanpakuto, blocking the attack and cringed as he hit the ground, ice creeping up his blade towards his arm. He hurriedly shook it off and spun around just in time to send another dragon at the tiger. The two ice creatures clashed, one destroying the other in a slashing arc of claws and fangs. The air seemed to freeze around the tiger, with every step it took towards Hitsugaya and with every flick of its tail it seemed to freeze the very air he was breathing. It was like he was frozen right there, like he couldn't move and he couldn't think and he didn't know what he was supposed to do. It was like that time he saw his very fist Hollow before he had gone to the academy.

_This is nothing, you've faced worse. _He blinked and nearly stumbled backwards when the dragon appeared before him. Hyourinmaru shifted his form and crossed his arms. He studied him silently for a moment; that deadpanned look on his face as if he really thought Hitsugaya was a child. _Suck it up, the Espada was worse. This is you. Resolve it._

"Resolve what? I don't even remember what made this guy!" he snapped.

Hyourinmaru frowned at him, apparently displeased with the tone he was taking. _Hitsugaya Toshiro,_ he said lowly, his voice threatening and dangerous, _he exists because you feared me. Now talk, we don't have all day before that thing attacks. _

Hitsugaya glared at him. "I wasn't that young when I first met you." He snapped angrily. "I looked that young, but I wasn't." He was firm in his demand.

Hyourinmaru sighed. _That thing will kill you, Toshiro. You cannot fight something that has sucked all your resolve away. You must end whatever problem created him before you can fight him. Now talk. Or is it that you don't trust me?_

Hitsugaya's eyes widened in shock. How could he think that? "I…of course I trust you!" he snapped. "What is wrong with you?"

_Toshiro,_ he stepped back at the deep growl coming from the dragon,_ say what you want to say. Don't lie to me. I know you. You trust me, but I made you create him. Now talk. If I must say this again I will leave you to deal with him without me!_

"You wouldn't," he hissed, eyes wide and a small bit of fear crawling in him. The dragon raised his brows. Hitsugaya remained silent and thought about it. He couldn't remember meeting Hyourinmaru before that time he nearly froze his grandmother to death.

_Concentrate and remember_, the dragon demanded.

He ignored him and closed his eyes, allowing the sword to go lax in his hand. He saw himself as a little boy, glaring at Hinamori about something and stalking off like a huffing child. He had been young, probably just came to Soul Society or something, and Hinamori had probably found him. It was a story he never remembered. His first weeks in Soul Society. He could see a forested area, a place he wasn't familiar with and the empty feeling of being lost. And he could remember the pounding ache of fear and the echoing blasts of concern and the hammering harshness of loneliness because the farther he walked the more people avoided him, pointed at him and ran. And he could feel the sting of the first slap from someone he didn't know and he could remember feeling pathetic for not being able to fight back and then he remembered screaming and then he remember ice and he remembered and escalating fear that refused to stop clenching at his heart as the clearing he was in started to freeze over and the trees and the plants and the grass withered and died beneath the ice.

And his eyes snapped open and his fist was inches from Hyourinmaru's face. The dragon studied him calmly, stood motionless as if he would've allowed Hitsugaya to hit him. _If it will make you feel better, then do it._ Well apparently he would've let Hitsugaya hit him.

Hitsugaya dropped his arm. "You never told me about that." He murmured, turning his head away from the dragon.

Hyourinmaru was silent for a moment. _I was not sure you needed to remember. You had been too young and totaling too much spirit force and they were scaring you. You were a child. I didn't think I would have to bother with seeing you again._ He shook his head. _I never expected a crying six year old would become something I would consider wielding me. _

Hitsugaya shifted around. "Is this all? Is this all it would take for me to face him at full power?" he asked worriedly. "Because I never even considered having a problem with you. Honestly. I mean you're my zanpakuto and we've been friends for ages and besides that…"

_Instead of babbling, let me at the damn tiger._ Hyourinmaru snapped.

He swung the sword in a sweeping arc, the racing water shot forward at a call of the dragon's name and raced towards the tiger speeding towards him. "Stop with the pathetic…" Hiro's voice trailed off as the dragon and tiger collided and the sheer force of contact between the dragon and tiger sent the tiger's ice created form shattering to pieces. "Ah, now I get it." He murmured and smirked.

Hiro dropped his sword, pointing it at Hitsugaya with amusement. "Now we can truly kill each other." Hiro's sword strained against Hitsugaya's. He swiped at Hitsugaya in a sideways arc; the blade clanging against Hyourinmaru's, sparks flew into the air. Hitsugaya dropped Hyourinmaru, completely removing his hands from the blade and slammed one into Hiro's fist and twisted his body around to land a bone crack kick to his side. He grabbed onto the crescent blade hanging off the end of Hyourinmaru, flipped him back into a familiar grip and swiped hard at the other male.

Hiro's eyes widened as blood slowly stained into his clothes and dripped off Hitsugaya's blade. "News flash," Hitsugaya murmured, "you can bleed."

Hiro was staring at the blood coating his hands as if he's never seen it before. Hitsugaya figured that if you lived a hundred and twenty years and never saw your own blood, it would shock you. Hiro clenched his blood-coated hand into a fist and closed his eyes, muttering something to himself that Hitsugaya couldn't quite hear.

Hitsugaya shifted his legs slowly and tightened his grasp on Hyourinmaru's hilt. Come what may, this was a fight he wasn't loosing, whether this bastard wanted him to loose or not, this was a fight he wasn't loosing.

He was not going to have his life taken over by an insane, sadistic bastard who allowed an insane little girl to massacre his division.

He was going to destroy this bastard and he was going to enjoy it.


	14. Chapter 13

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**I suspect this might be rather anti-climatic. Also Rei's Zanpakuto's name is Sode no Amekuroi - I changed it slightly, but it basically means Sleeve of Black Rain. Anyway, I don't have much to say. There's only two more chapters left, so I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I did and thanks for all the reviews, you guys are wonderful!**

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Hiro coughed, blood slowly dripping from the corners of his mouth. He shook his head and spat blood from his mouth as he rose to his feet. He was bleeding in places he didn't even know existed. The Eleventh Division had made it self comfortable, was drinking something and chattering to each other. The third seats – when the hell everyone appeared he was still working out – were sitting with their taichou, surprisingly quiet as they gazed at the gate. Kurosaki had come back, his arms were folded across his chest and he was staring out of the same gate the two third seats were. It was as if they could actually see Rei and Rukia tearing Juninran apart. Matsumoto was staring at her taichou; the man was bleeding as much as he was if not less. And the less part was pissing him off. It was almost as if she wanted to run to him.

Something flew through the open gate and slammed into a building nearby the Tenth division fukutaichou. He frowned and straightened up from his slightly forward bent position. He studied the dust as he watched it clear and his eyes widened in shock. Rei was stumbling out of it. She looked smaller than she has ever looked to him in her whole life. There was blood, far too much blood for her small body. Her hair was matted with it, it was drenched in her clothes and she was leaving trails of it behind her as she stepped, struggling, from the debris around her.

Her movements were sluggish and it scared him. The graceful liquid was gone. There was a glazed, dead look to her eyes and a shake to her hands that he wasn't familiar with. She had never sported that look before, not even when Zaraki nearly beat her to death. It was as if with each step she took pain echoed through her small body.

Rukia's shunpo was graceless and more a thud than a step. She was bleeding just as badly, but she was more alive than Rei was.

Hiro completely turned his back on Hitsugaya, knowing it was a mistake, but unable to look away from the companion he's had for the last seventy-eight years of his life. His eyes widened as the released zanpakuto her hand started to dissolve, breaking into a fine black dust before disappearing completely. Her hand curled in on itself, clutching at something that wasn't there. It hit him like a bomb. Hammered into his gut and slammed over his head with a force that almost sent him to his knees.

She was dying.

Kuchiki managed to push her to the brink.

She was dying.

Kuchiki…Kuchiki managed…Kuchiki managed…

SHE WAS DYING.

Her hand uncurled and she sank forward. Her knees hit the ground harshly, her hair swaying and her eyes closed as she started to fall forward. His hand loosened around his zanpakuto as he disappeared and reappeared in front of her on his knees, catching her around her middle with one hand behind her head. She rested her head against his shoulder. Her breathing was erratic, it puffed against his neck in short, shallow pants. The back of her shihakusho was soaking wet with blood, it was soaking into his hands and staining his hands and covering even his blood. He couldn't feel her heartbeat. Normally if he was this close to her, pressed so tightly against her, he could feel it. He could feel the even thudding that had always seemed so eternal. Her skin was cold and clammy against his hot and sweaty skin.

"Rei," he whispered softly, "don't leave." His hand tightened in the material of her shihakusho and her hair and it was as if he was juice pressing blood from her hair and the black material. The Kuchiki princess did this. How could the Kuchiki princess have screwed his dark princess up so badly? How could this happen when Rei had always grinned and said it would be the easiest thing on the planet, that she wasn't scared, that it was ok, that they were not going to loose to some stuck up kid and a princess from a family she doesn't belong with?

"Né, Taichou, I love you." She whispered softly. It was as if her breathing sped up and it hurt to say each word. "Sorry…" she whispered painfully, "…I lost."

He tightened his grip on her, holding on tighter as her words faded slowly. He knew what was happening. An Other was dying. In the center of her chest a black hole was slowly forming, representing the darkness they were created from. It was slowly spreading over her body, folding in gluey globs over her body, reaching, pressing, touching every part of her that would need to disappear. He closed his eyes when it started to creep up her neck and finally there was a soft hissing sound and the only thing he was grasping was an empty shinigami uniform.

He rose carefully. The uniform smelled of water and snow. It smelled of fresh blood, water and snow. He could practically feel his spirit force climbing around him, lashing out in black waves in various directions.

His foot hit the side of Kuchiki's head before the uniform fluttered to the ground. Her head snapped to the side and he twisted his body around, slammed both hands into the ground and forced his feet hard against her chest. She crashed into the group of Eleventh Division members just as the uniform hit the ground. His hair fluttered in front of his eyes, flashing between pure onyx black and snow, ice white. He grabbed his zanpakuto in the process and disappeared before Hitsugaya could appear in front of him with a downward slash. He held the blade in both hands as he stood over her. He went down with the blade, pressing his knee beside her hip. It would've pierced he straight through to the hilt if it wasn't for the annoying pink blades stopping him.

He shoved his hand through the pink blades, ignoring the pain shoot up his arm as it tore his skin to shred and ripped the girl up. The blades immediately shot away. "I told him I would kill you if she died."

"Shut up." She whispered. "She didn't want this!" she spat. "You weren't good for her."

Hiro narrowed his eyes. "You think you can justify what she did? You can make it alright? You are wrong." He stated simply and shoved her against the wall, ignoring ever member of the Eleventh Division that rose to their feet. "She hated you. Don't come up for her. You'll just ruin who she was." He sneered. "Die."

"If you loved her," his blade stopped inches from her skin, "you'll let me go and honor her wishes. You heard her."

He dropped her as if she burnt him. He had always known that Rei didn't fight like someone who planned on living. For an Other that wasn't uncommon. Since they were the only Others that have ever lived past ten years, he had thought that it would go away with time. He had ignored it, pretended that she didn't fight like someone who went in it to die.

He stepped over the fallen Kuchiki. He would deal with her later. He would kill her as slowly and as painfully as she had killed Rei. And when he was done, he would heal her and start over again.

He stretched his hand out, feel the air around him turn colder and colder, and grasped the hilt of an ice blade. He flipped it over and slammed it backwards, forcing it to the hilt through the Kuchiki's shoulder and into the wall. He flicked his wrist and water burst from the end, spilling over her and freeze from the point of contact with the sword. "Stay there, Princess. I will kill you later."

He brought the sword up to protect him from Hitsugaya's attack. The spirit force coming from the attack ruffled at his hair again. He glanced over his shoulder; having stopped Hitsugaya's attack inches from his head and let the hilt go, slamming his fist into the shorter man's gut and sent him crashing into the wall beside the Princess. He grasped the hilt again and spun around to head to Rei's shinigami uniform. He picked the ice blue ribbon up and shoved Mizumaru into the ground before tying it around the guard. He grasped the blade in both hands, crisscrossing his hands over each other to do so.

He took a slow even breath. He was first and foremost a soldier. The annihilation of the enemy came before personal emotions. His duty was to eradicate the enemy, to honor Rei's name and to leave it at that. "Sorry to have kept you waiting, Toshiro," He said calmly, "but I will kill you now."

"Glad you think so." Hitsugaya muttered.

Hitsugaya blocked the downward slash of his sword and the kick he sent towards the older male's side. He racked his sword's blade down the other's and smirked as Hitsugaya's eyes dropped to the sparking blades. He shoved Hitsugaya away and arced the blade towards him, smirking as a rushing ice tiger slashed at him twice before he managed to destroy it. His attacks inelegant and rash. There was no method to them. They were powerful and destructive but left too many openings and he knew it. He couldn't count the openings on his one hand and he knew that if he didn't get it together soon he was going to die.

His parries and blocks were becoming less graceful and less powerful and less everything. It was like he lost his will to fight with Rei. He shook his head as he skidded away from Hitsugaya again. She wouldn't want him to throw away his life for no reason. She would want him to fight until the end, until his opponent defeats him because he's stronger than because he gave up. And that was exactly what he planned on doing; he was going to destroy Hitsugaya. He won't let him win and when he did win, he was going to destroy Kuchiki, whether Rei wanted to die or not.

He brought his sword up in a defend and kicked out, surprised when Hitsugaya caught his leg. The other male's fingers clenched painfully around his ankle and for a moment he stared at him in confusion. Hitsugaya dropped his sword and grasped his leg with both hands before swinging him hard into the Sekkiseki wall. The white haired man had his sword tightly in his grasp before Hiro hit the ground. He shook his head and wondered when he started underestimating Hitsugaya so badly. He flickered out of existence; slashing upward and leaving a harsh gash across Hitsugaya's back from his left him to his right shoulder. He ducked the backwards swing of Hitsugaya's attack and slammed his hand into Hitsugaya's face. The white haired male blocked the attack, but he twisted his hand around and grabbed onto his wrist, slashing his sword in a random direction. Blood spurted from Hitsugaya's shoulder wound and he smirked, flicking away before Hitsugaya could respond with an attack.

The other male was breathing slightly more rashly, but he figured with the wounds he had just acquired and the wounds he had already been sporting, he would be breathing faster.

"Didn't you say I'm overconfident?" his eyes widened as he looked down. "There's a big difference between you and me, Hiro." The man said calmly. His back to Hiro's chest and his blade pressed against Hiro's chest in the area where his heart would be. Hitsugaya's one hand was wrapped around the hilt and the other placed at the end, ready to shove back before he could move or try to think of moving. He frowned down at the older male, wondering exactly what the hell he was talking about. "You lost the will to fight the moment she died." Hitsugaya glanced back. "But that isn't what makes us different. You grew on my weaknesses. But I always concentrated on my strengths. This fight was tipped in my favor from the very beginning. You are powerful, Rukia probably would've died if she had to fight you, but you are not stronger than me."

"You never were."

"My story isn't nearly as interesting as Rei's." He murmured slowly. "I always thought she would be the one to walk away from this alive. Always seemed more right for it. Trust me, you didn't know her the way I did. The massacring of your Division, Inoue's death, those were little things compared to the stuff she did before. Granted, she did it all on my order, so I don't really know which of us is worse. I guess you can say me." He wrapped his hand around the blade.

The kid was right; in essence he did loose his will to fight the moment Rei died. "I was there, when those idiots were freaking you out enough for you to create something like me. I can remember you had been so pissed about the stupid freaking ice dragon thing that kept you up most of the night because it scared you to go to sleep. I don't really know why after that incident it took so long for you to see him again, but it is an amusing concept, I'll give you that. I jumped out of the tree after you killed them, never seen a kid freeze anything to death so fast. You passed out of course, can't expect you to remain awake. I thought you were and idiot, I thought someone with your kind of power should have bigger dreams than sitting around eating red sugared beans all day. I picked you up; too you home and dumped you on the front porch. You're six years older than me; do you know that? I thought it was the biggest disgrace to be created by a six year old damn kid. But then again when I didn't disappear after ten years I figured I'd have fun. Never planned on meeting you again. I bet Omae didn't tell you that in the first ten years the only thing you feel is a dull throbbing pain, annoying as hell, but easy to ignore. After ten years, the exact second ten years is up though, now that is hell."

"I spent my years training with various things. Figured out I could wield a zanpakuto and then spent my time randomly fighting people. I couldn't die. What were the chances of me actually getting hurt too badly in a fight. By the time I reached the age where I found Rei I was pissed off. I was growing stronger with emotions I didn't really feel and the people around me were just staying weak. Rei was something else though, never thought I would meet something like me, much less in the form of a snotty, princess like kid. She dropped the attitude soon, quit demanding to return to Soul Society so she could become a real princess. Of course she grew up, eventually learned, embraced Rukia's emotions and eventually she was fighting dirty with the best of them. And then of course Omae came into the picture. I hope the little snot is dead. She was like a doting mother."

He huffed darkly. "If she wasn't spoiling him, she was training him and if she wasn't doing that she was just talking to him. It annoyed me. He was weak, couldn't do anything and was most often just in the way. Buts she loved him, would've done anything for him. Of course I figured I was around longer and he was taking my soldier away so I made him an offer I knew he wouldn't take. And in turn he made her an offer she never would've taken and in the end they split up. She chose me over him, which I knew she would do." He tilted his head to the sky.

"I'm not dying, why are you telling me this?"

"Because Hitsugaya," he said slowly, "Knowing your enemy, even if they are dying, can teach you something for future battles." He patted the older male on the head. "And besides, I told you I would tell you this. Want to know what I really do regret?" the white haired taichou frowned. "I regret underestimating you. You were always just the annoying kid, yelling at older people to leave you alone, you were never strong enough or smart enough for me to really bother with you. And that was my mistake. I should've thought further than my nose."

"Why?" Hitsugaya questioned after a moment. "Because it might've kept her alive or because you don't want to die?"

"Not everyone wants to stay alive, Hitsugaya. We're made to die. I couldn't care about dying or not dying. I wanted power. But I'll give you this," he smirked and leaned forward into the blade, the teal eyed man's eyes widening in shock and trying to pull the blade away. "I am not really dying, I'm just returning to where I came from."

He tapped a bloodied finger against Hitsugaya's head. "I'm going back, but given a chance I will be back, and I will destroy you."

He smirked as Hitsugaya managed to rip his blade away. It was already too late. His zanpakuto dissolved into a black dust before disappearing and slowly the globs of black gluey stuff started to spread over his body. He tilted his head to the sky. "I'll say something else as well, I'm not sorry about having Rei kill Inoue. After all, you're going to be in that state for a bit longer, even if you do have an excellent healer like Unohana taichou."

He gave the white haired male a two fingered salute. "Sayonara, Hitsugaya taichou, for your sake I hope we don't meet again."

For the first time in a century his head was empty. There was no fear of anything, no insecurity, there was just nothing. And he couldn't say it was a pleasant feeling. He was so used to the constant voices in his head that the sudden silence was a bit unnerving. He guessed that considering what he was going through now it didn't really matter.

His only consolation was that at least Rei would've enjoyed the silence.


	15. Chapter 14

**Second to last chapter. I like this one, it isn't very long and the next one's even shorter. I can't really tell you why I like it so I do hope you guys enjoy it!**

**I don't own Bleach.**

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Rukia stood silently in front of the small, black memorial stone she had set up in a secluded part of the Kuchiki graveyard.

She wasn't sure if her brother knew, she suspected he did, but she hoped he didn't take it down. There was no sense of duty behind the memorial stone. She had set it up because she believed that Rei deserved it. Rei had been her enemy, but she had created the girl. Nothing she could ever say could justify the things Rei had done in her life. She had done it because she wanted to and she could. Rukia was not tempted to desecrate the girl through believing she wanted anything else.

Rukia closed her eyes as thunderclouds rolled in the sky. She remembered the girl's zanpakuto. A water based zanpakuto against a snow type zanpakuto, one would think she'd have the upper hand through out the battle. Pure determination and will to fight, she had discovered, was small factors in fighting Rei. Her ability had been more than she had let on. She will admit, being frozen had sort of deterred her healing, but even with that the damage Rei had done was still healing.

She remembered the black swirling rain that felt like bullets against her skin. Rei had controlled that zanpakuto with water like fluidity and grace. She remembered the way Rei merely flicked her wrists and the fallen water had formed black globs of powerful opponents.

Rukia could not say what had happened, when the fight had turned in her favor. She could not say how Rei had ended up loosing more blood than Rukia was. She could not say what exactly had been the killing blow. She couldn't remember. But she remembered the words. She remembered the words seconds before that last blow, the words that had told her if Rei had been able to, she wouldn't have stopped it anyway.

_I don't hear anything._

There had been enough sound and shouts and screams. Rukia hadn't gotten it until the very end. Right up to that moment where Rei had told Hiro she loved him, she didn't get it. She had been talking about the voices – probably echoing screams of pain and fear and anger and whatever else – in her head. Rukia was sure to keep that emptiness in her head she would've remained stationary even if Rukia demanded that she fought back.

Rukia gently set the orchid flowers down before the grave, smiling slightly at it.

She quietly joined the hustle and bustle of Soul Society, making her way towards the Ninth Division where she could hear Ichigo yelling at the top of his lungs. She would give him credit. In the last two weeks since his appointment as the Ninth Division taichou he had done wonders with the Division. Whether it was his power or his nature that gave him the upper hand, his subordinates didn't dare disobey him. He had worked through the backlog of paperwork, paperwork that dated back to just after Kaname's betrayal. He hadn't even seemed angry by the fact that Hisagi had struggled to keep up with it. The two of them had sat for two days and two nights finishing the paperwork with no complaints.

The only thing he seemed to have a severe hatred for was new recruits.

He despised them with everything his being was capable of. Not because they were weak or new to the whole business, but because many of them stepped into the Ninth Division under the impression that they could command and conquer him.

She stepped into the Ninth Division office and smiled at Hisagi. He returned the smile and glanced at his taichou who was still yelling. She waved slightly to him. Ichigo glared at the two recruits before him, their heads bowed and their backs rigid. "Get out." He finally snapped at them as he plopped down in his chair. They hurried from the office, both men looked near tears at having been scolded by such a young taichou. "Idiots. All of them." He grouched and grabbed paperwork towards him. "File a report on this, Hisagi-san and kick their asses in training tomorrow."

Hisagi smiled and shook his head. "Very well, taichou." He answered as he started to write out the report.

"You seem to be doing well." Rukia said smirking. "Yelling at recruits, doing paperwork, handing out work, looking like you need a drink, working. You're almost just like Toshiro." Ichigo pulled his face. "You know, Hisagi-san and I are going out with Matsumoto-san later tonight, maybe you'd like to come with us."

"I know for a fact that later tonight you're going to Hitsugaya's place." He responded without even looking up. "How are you, by the way?" he asked finally bothering to look up.

She rolled her shoulders, not yet capable of a full shrug. Without Orihime healing is a bit hard these days. "Great, went for a walk today." Ichigo knew about the memorial stone. They called it a walk. "I think I've…I think I get it now." She said slowly and smiled at him. "I feel better now."

He grinned. "Good. Now please leave. You are distracting me and chances are I won't be working tonight anyway."

"Taichou, honestly, we do not need to hear about anything Matsumoto-san is trying to teach you in the bedroom." Ichigo's face flushed red. Rukia couldn't help but think that between Kaname and Ichigo, Hisagi's new taichou was better by a long run. The man could be more himself. And if she wasn't mistaken, the poor guy's issues with his zanpakuto had been resolved quite well at the hand of Ichigo's command.

Ichigo scowled at Hisagi. "Need I remind you of a certain someone with a certain type of zanpakuto who likes the idea of you on your back?" he asked. Rukia raised her brows. Ichigo was well informed, better informed than many of them would like him to be and thus not everyone always understood the things he threatened people with. But from the way Hisagi paled slightly he knew.

Rukia laughed and waved again as she headed back out. She headed straight for Toshiro's manor. He kept saying he would sell it, but so far the only selling he's come to was buying furniture and selling the stuff from his quarters he wouldn't be using in the house. As suspected he was there, working on bits and pieces of things. He was supposed to be recovering, but no, work always seemed to linger on his mind. She plopped down beside him and settled her head in his lap, not even bothering to explain herself. Her back was comfortable on the floor he was sitting on and she was pretty sure if he didn't find some way to entertain her she would fall asleep with the soothing air that seemed to have settled around her.

"You should tell Kurosaki not to yell so much, I could hear him all the way here."

She scoffed. "The recruits were at it again, I assume. When do they stop thinking they can do it better? I think he'd like that bit of advice."

"They don't. Most of them will forever be older than when he became captain and for the next hundred to hundred and sixty years he's going to have recruits pissing him off because he's younger than them. That alone gives them the idea that they can do it better." He said smirking, brushing hair from her face. "Though you should be careful, Ukitake'll start thinking you don't want to be in his division anymore."

She grinned and closed her eyes. "Hmm, maybe I'll swap two old men in for a younger one. Transfer to the Ninth Division and dump you. I'm pretty sure Matsumoto isn't apposed to threesomes."

He smirked at her. "Oh? I don't think she will be, but remember when she said Haineko was selfish and rude and various other things?" he asked. He leaned down and gently trailed kisses along her jaw towards her mouth. "Another quality she got from Matsumoto is the 'we don't like to share' thing. So you might as well stay with me."

She weaved her fingers into his hair and grinned, pressing her mouth firmly to his in a rather dominating kiss before he managed to take the control over. She pulled back slightly. "I guess I will." She whispered. She stared deep into his eyes for a moment, grinning as she leaned up again. "What point is there in having a young and inexperienced kid to take care of, right?"

She blinked half surprised when she found him leaning over her with her head pressed against the ground. His one hand was pressing into the ground beside her head and the other was cupping the side of her face as his thumb brushed in soft comforting motions over her cheek. He leaned down and kissed her, kissed her in a way she couldn't ever remember being kissed. "I love you, Rukia." He said firmly.

Rukia smiled brightly and kissed him, wrapping both arms around his neck to pull him closer.

Everything was ok again. It was peaceful again and mostly everyone was ok.

But did nightmares truly ever end?


	16. Epilogue

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**I'll let you guys decide about this chapter. I want to thank everyone who reviewed and who read this story and who favorited and alerted it. You guys are awesome and I'm glad you guys enjoyed this enough to stick with it right to the end!**

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The young girl sat crouched beside the silent boy as they studied the manor from the wall they were perched on.

Her hand was curled into the top of his hakama, her fingers brushing against the warm skin of his hip. Her white hair fluttered softly in the breeze picking up. Her bangs were pushed away from her face by the sweetest little pins she could find. He companion's dark hair was tugged in various directions, as if the wind was harsher up there than where she was crouched and his arms were crossed over his chest.

"Né, Taichou," she murmured, the sword clinking in its scabbard as she rose to her full height, "we're leaving them alone this time."

He was quiet for a long time as they watched the two through the window they should've closed. They were looking at each other, love bright in their eyes even from this distance. The white haired male had the dark haired female pinned to the ground, the glass coffee table pushed out of the way. Finally the dark haired boy dropped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into him, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"Hmm, I don't think they'll appreciate seeing us even if it is to apologize."

He waved his hand and their curtains closed as they disappeared before the first drops of rain fell.


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